spiral vs twirl

spiral

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

  • To increase continually. 

  • To cause something to spiral. 

adj
  • Helical, like a spiral. 

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. 

twirl

verb
  • To twist round. 

  • To pitch. 

  • To rotate rapidly. 

  • To perform a twirl. 

noun
  • A little twist of some substance; a swirl. 

  • A movement where a person spins round elegantly; a pirouette. 

  • Any rotating movement; a spin. 

  • A prison guard. 

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