GYRE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gyre mean? 

• GYRE (noun)
  The noun GYRE has 1 sense:

1. a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles (as formed by leaves or flower petals)

  Familiarity information: GYRE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GYRE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A round shape formed by a series of concentric circles (as formed by leaves or flower petals)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

coil; curl; curlicue; gyre; ringlet; roll; scroll; whorl

Hypernyms ("gyre" is a kind of...):

round shape (a shape that is curved and without sharp angles)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gyre"):

corolla ((botany) the whorl of petals of a flower that collectively form an inner floral envelope or layer of the perianth)

calyx ((botany) the whorl of sepals of a flower collectively forming the outer floral envelope or layer of the perianth enclosing and supporting the developing bud; usually green)

verticil (a whorl of leaves growing around a stem)

 Context examples 

Some of it drifts into large systems of circulating ocean currents, known as gyres.

(Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Growing Rapidly, Study Finds, VOA)

Vast subtropical gyres — large systems of rotating currents in the middle of the oceans — cover 40% of the Earth.

(North Pacific Ocean fertilized by iron in Asian dust, National Science Foundation)

The team found extremely slow rates of respiration and approximately 1,000 cells per cubic centimeter of subseafloor sediment in the South Pacific gyre—rates and quantities that had been nearly undetectable.

(No limit to life in deep sediment of ocean's "deadest" region, NSF)

Once trapped in a gyre, the plastic will break down into microplastics, which may be ingested by sea life.

(Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Growing Rapidly, Study Finds, VOA)

The researchers noticed that the levels of phosphorous and iron, nutrients important for life, changed significantly in North Pacific gyre surface waters during the three decades of the study.

(North Pacific Ocean fertilized by iron in Asian dust, National Science Foundation)

Scientists have found oxygen and oxygen-breathing microbes all the way through the sediment from the seafloor to the igneous basement at seven sites in the South Pacific gyre, considered the deadest location in the ocean.

(No limit to life in deep sediment of ocean's "deadest" region, NSF)

The surface layer of the North Pacific gyre has very clear waters with hardly any nutrients.

(North Pacific Ocean fertilized by iron in Asian dust, National Science Foundation)

The gyres have long been considered biological deserts, with waters that contain very few nutrients to sustain life.

(North Pacific Ocean fertilized by iron in Asian dust, National Science Foundation)