vertiginous
adjective
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It is generally necessary to avoid crowded rooms and the vertiginous influence of the dance, one 19th-century medical work advised. We're not sure what condition this advice was aimed at, but it may well have been "vertigo," a disordered state characterized by whirling dizziness. "Vertiginous," from the Latin vertiginosus, is the adjective form of "vertigo," which in Latin means a turning or whirling action. Both words descend from the Latin verb vertere, meaning "to turn." ("Vertiginous" and "vertigo" are just two of an almost dizzying array of "vertere" offspring, from "adverse" to "vortex.") The "dizzying" sense of "vertiginous" is often used figuratively, as in "vertiginous medical discoveries may drastically change life in the 21st century."
Examples of vertiginous in a Sentence
Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Money, 4 Apr. 2025
Its shares have dropped 35 percent this calendar year, a vertiginous slide that has coincided with the abrupt rise of Mr. Musk’s pugnacious profile in government and politics.
—Jeff Sommer, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025
But no one pays IMAX ticket prices for nuanced human drama, and the film’s dizzying climbing scenes and vertiginous don’t-look-down moments are what give it its heart-quickening power.
—Randall Colburn, EW.com, 16 Mar. 2025
The vertiginous condensing of fiction and nonfiction, of past and present, has a radically destabilizing effect that’s inseparable from the audacity of Lou’s political vision.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Vertiginous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vertiginous. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
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vertiginous
adjective
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