whorl
noun /wɜːl/
/wɜːrl/
- a pattern made by a curved line that forms a rough circle, with smaller circles inside bigger ones
- the whorls on your fingertips
- (specialist) a ring of leaves, flowers, etc. around the stem of a plant
Word Originlate Middle English (denoting a small flywheel): apparently a variant of whirl, influenced by Old English wharve ‘whorl of a spindle’.