Plural of “vortex”

The plural of vortex is vortices (some dictionaries also accept vortexes).

Why

"Vortex" comes directly from Latin "vortex" (a variant spelling of "vertex," meaning a whirl or eddy), a third-declension noun whose Latin plural was "vortices." Because the word entered English largely through physics, fluid dynamics, and philosophy — Descartes famously used "vortices" to describe planetary motion in the 17th century — it kept close contact with its Latin plural far longer than everyday borrowings do, and "vortices" remains the dominant form in technical and scientific writing today.

"Vortexes" is not an error, though; general dictionaries list it as an accepted, fully regular alternative, and it shows up more often in casual or figurative use ("a vortex of emotions," "sucked into a vortex of debt") than in scientific papers, where "vortices" still dominates almost without exception.

Usage note

If you're writing about tornadoes, whirlpools, or fluid dynamics in a technical or academic register, "vortices" is the safer, more expected choice. In loose figurative writing about chaos or overwhelming situations, either form reads naturally, though "vortexes" can feel slightly more approachable to a general audience.

The word's pronunciation shift matters here too: "vortices" is pronounced VOR-tih-seez, with the final syllable rhyming with "trees," not "vortex-es" — a common mispronunciation among people who've only seen the word in print and assume it follows the regular -es pattern phonetically as well as visually. The word also appears in modern popular usage describing swirling patterns in weather systems, most famously the "polar vortex," a term that surged into everyday news vocabulary during unusually cold winters — and even in that popular meteorological usage, "vortices" remains the plural favored by scientists describing multiple such systems, while "vortexes" shows up more in casual news writing aimed at general readers.

Common real mistakes

Writing "vorticies" (transposing the i and e) is a frequent spelling slip; the correct Latin-derived spelling is "vortices," with the -ices ending matching the pattern in "indices" and "matrices."

The wider pattern

"Vortex" belongs to a cluster of Latin -ex/-ix nouns whose plural in -ices remains genuinely alive in technical English: "index/indices," "matrix/matrices," "appendix/appendices." Unlike "annex," which shed its Latin plural entirely, "vortex" still lives partly in the scientific register where the Latin form was never displaced. Bathtub and drain vortices are a common, accessible example used in introductory physics classes to demonstrate rotational fluid dynamics, and instructors describing multiple such classroom demonstrations across different sections or years would naturally say "vortices," reflecting how the scientific plural persists even in the most basic teaching contexts.

Examples

• The storm system spawned two vortices visible on radar within minutes.
• Physicists modeled the vortices forming behind the aircraft's wingtips.
• Multiple vortices appeared in the tank during the fluid dynamics demonstration.
• She described her grief as one of several emotional vortexes she'd fallen into that year.
• The simulation tracked dozens of tiny vortices in the turbulent flow.
• Descartes proposed that vortices in a subtle fluid carried the planets around the sun.
• Engineers studied the vortices shed by the bridge's cables in high wind.
• Two competing vortices collided and merged into a single larger one.
• The documentary used slow motion to reveal vortices invisible to the naked eye.
• Meteorologists distinguish between the several vortices that can form within a single hurricane.
• Meteorologists compared two polar vortices affecting different continents that winter.
• The kayakers avoided the strongest vortices near the base of the falls.
• Wind tunnel tests revealed tiny vortices trailing off each turbine blade.
• The animation depicted swirling vortices pulling debris toward the storm's center.
• The physics class observed vortices forming in a simple tabletop demonstration.
• Two vortices merged into one larger, more powerful system overnight.
• The pilot reported unusual vortices trailing behind the departing aircraft.
• Researchers filmed vortices forming around the model bridge in the wind tunnel.