downward spiral in English

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{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "downward spirals",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "downward spiral (plural downward spirals)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "rebound"
        },
        {
          "word": "upward spiral"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "vicious circle"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A series of thoughts or actions which feeds back into itself, causing a situation to become progressively worse."
      ],
      "id": "en-downward_spiral-en-noun-DxBAfH5D",
      "links": [
        [
          "series",
          "series"
        ],
        [
          "thoughts",
          "thoughts"
        ],
        [
          "actions",
          "actions"
        ],
        [
          "feeds",
          "feeds"
        ],
        [
          "progressively",
          "progressively"
        ],
        [
          "worse",
          "worse"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) A series of thoughts or actions which feeds back into itself, causing a situation to become progressively worse."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "circle the drain"
        },
        {
          "word": "death spiral"
        },
        {
          "word": "tailspin"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Abwärtsspirale"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "downward spiral"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "downward spirals",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "downward spiral (plural downward spirals)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "circle the drain"
    },
    {
      "word": "death spiral"
    },
    {
      "word": "tailspin"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "rebound"
        },
        {
          "word": "upward spiral"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "vicious circle"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A series of thoughts or actions which feeds back into itself, causing a situation to become progressively worse."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "series",
          "series"
        ],
        [
          "thoughts",
          "thoughts"
        ],
        [
          "actions",
          "actions"
        ],
        [
          "feeds",
          "feeds"
        ],
        [
          "progressively",
          "progressively"
        ],
        [
          "worse",
          "worse"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) A series of thoughts or actions which feeds back into itself, causing a situation to become progressively worse."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Abwärtsspirale"
    }
  ],
  "word": "downward spiral"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.

"downward spiral" meaning in English

Noun

Inflected forms