Eddy vs. Vortex — What's the Difference?

A circular movement of water causing a small whirlpool

In fluid dynamics, a vortex (plural vortices/vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in the wake of a boat, and the winds surrounding a tropical cyclone, tornado or dust devil.

(of water, air, or smoke) move in a circular way

A whirling mass of fluid or air, especially a whirlpool or whirlwind

A current, as of water or air, moving contrary to the direction of the main current, especially in a circular motion.

A whirling mass of water or air that sucks everything near it toward its center.

A drift or tendency that is counter to or separate from a main current, as of opinion, tradition, or history.

A place or situation regarded as drawing into its center all that surrounds it, and hence being inescapable or destructive

To move in or as if in an eddy or eddies

A whirlwind, whirlpool, or similarly moving matter in the form of a spiral or column.

A current of air or water running back, or in an opposite direction to the main current.

(figuratively) Anything that involves constant violent or chaotic activity around some centre.

A circular current; a whirlpool.

(figuratively) Anything that inevitably draws surrounding things into its current.

(slang) A marijuana edible.

(historical) A supposed collection of particles of very subtle matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or planet; part of a Cartesian theory accounting for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it.

(intransitive) To form an eddy; to move in, or as if in, an eddy; to move in a circle.

(zoology) Any of numerous species of small Turbellaria belonging to Vortex and allied genera.

A current of air or water running back, or in a direction contrary to the main current.

(chemistry) To mix using a vortex mixer

A current of water or air moving in a circular direction; a whirlpool.

A mass of fluid, especially of a liquid, having a whirling or circular motion tending to form a cavity or vacuum in the center of the circle, and to draw in towards the center bodies subject to its action; the form assumed by a fluid in such motion; a whirlpool; an eddy.

To move as an eddy, or as in an eddy; to move in a circle.

A supposed collection of particles of very subtile matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or a planet. Descartes attempted to account for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it, by a theory of vortices.

To collect as into an eddy.

Any one of numerous species of small Turbellaria belonging to Vortex and allied genera. See Illustration in Appendix.

Founder of Christian Science in 1866 (1821-1910)

The shape of something rotating rapidly

A miniature whirlpool or whirlwind resulting when the current of a fluid doubles back on itself

A powerful circular current of water (usually the resulting of conflicting tides)

Flow in a circular current, of liquids