billow vs spiral

billow

verb
  • To surge or roll in billows. 

  • To swell out or bulge. 

noun
  • A large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound 

spiral

verb
  • To cause something to spiral. 

  • To increase continually. 

  • To move along the path of a spiral or helix. 

noun
  • A helix. 

  • A section of track that forms a circle and crosses over itself, used for gaining height in mountainous territory. 

  • A self-sustaining process with a lot of momentum involved, so it is difficult to accelerate or stop it at once. 

  • A curve that is the locus of a point that rotates about a fixed point while continuously increasing its distance from that point. 

adj
  • Helical, like a spiral. 

How often have the words billow and spiral occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )