🎉 Full of activity 🤯 Excited confusion 🌀 Spinning fast

awhirl

8.8

Spinning or moving quickly in a circle

adjective
/əˈwɜrl/

Literature

: girando

Autumn leaves were awhirl in the strong afternoon breeze.

Examples

The dancers moved awhirl around the stage.
After spinning in circles, the children felt awhirl and dizzy.
The room seemed awhirl with excitement as the celebration began.
The leaves were awhirl in the autumn breeze.
The autumn leaves were awhirl as the wind blew through the park.
The dancers twirled awhirl on stage, captivating the audience with their grace.
After a long day at the fair, the children giggled as they spun awhirl on the carousel.

Synonyms

whirling

vsawhirl

3 3.4

A fast spinning movement in a circle

describes something spinning or moving rapidly rather than naming the action

whirly

vsawhirl

Informal

1 7.1

Moving quickly in circles like a spinning top

focuses on the state of spinning rapidly rather than causing the motion

aswirl

vsawhirl

7.8

Full of spinning movement or lively activity

refers to rapid circular motion of something rather than general busy activity

Antonyms

still

∞ 1.0

Not moving or making a sound

stationary

46 2.9

Not moving and staying in one place

How Fast

awhirl

Literature

8.8

to swirl

120 2.7

turning

22 2.5

motionless

41 3.0

Surface Forms

awhirl positive

Morphology

awhirl = whirl (semi-transparent) = a + whirl

The connection to 'whirl' is clear, but the old stative prefix 'a-' meaning 'in a state of' is not very familiar to most learners.

Etymology

Awhirl is made of a- ('in') and whirl ('to spin'), which gives the clear image of something 'in a spin' or turning fast. That is why awhirl can describe things that are actually spinning or moving in circles.