Does spiral mean increase or decrease?

A

avidsuper

Senior Member
Japanese
hi,

I'm confused by the meaning of the word spiral. According to definitions from dictionaries, it seems the word can mean progress or degenerate, increase or decrease, hence the collocation spiral upward and spiral downward. My question is: when spiral is used alone without upward or downward, how can one decide whether it means increase or decrease? For example, inflation is spiraling.
 
    • By definition inflation has a direction in and by itself, so it's not a great example. I would say context would determine whether it's "up or down", but I would also say my impression is that "spiraling" is usually meant in a negative way. So if you have the choice between an "up" or 'down" it often means whichever is "a bad thing".

    "His high school grades are spiraling out of control" I would take to mean they're getting lower (worse).

    "With this inadequate cooling system the CPU temperature is spiraling out of control after only two hours" I would take to mean temperatures are rising (worse).

    But I'd love to see if others have a different experience with the word.
     
    MattiasNYC said:
    By definition inflation has a direction in and by itself, so it's not a great example. I would say context would determine whether it's "up or down", but I would also say my impression is that "spiraling" is usually meant in a negative way. So if you have the choice between an "up" or 'down" it often means whichever is "a bad thing".

    "His high school grades are spiraling out of control" I would take to mean they're getting lower (worse).

    "With this inadequate cooling system the CPU temperature is spiraling out of control after only two hours" I would take to mean temperatures are rising (worse).

    But I'd love to see if others have a different experience with the word.
    Click to expand...
    Thank you, Mattias, for your helpful explanations. in your first example, can it be interpreted as grade inflation as well, a phenomenon that can carry negative connotation?
     
    avidsuper said:
    Thank you, Mattias, for your helpful explanations. in your first example, can it be interpreted as grade inflation as well, a phenomenon that can carry negative connotation?
    Click to expand...

    Sorry, I didn't read carefully enough. I missed the "his". If the sentence is high school grades are spiraling out of control, can it mean grade inflations?
     
    I'm not sure what "grade inflation" really means. If the student has problems and his grades are "spiraling out of control" I would expect that to mean that in general the grades are falling, getting worse.

    When I hear the term "spiraling" I actually often think of an airplane that has problems and ends up falling out of control, but in a spiral pattern; it's spiraling out of control. So often not only are things getting worse, they're getting uncontrollably or rapidly worse.
     
    MattiasNYC said:
    I'm not sure what "grade inflation" really means. If the student has problems and his grades are "spiraling out of control" I would expect that to mean that in general the grades are falling, getting worse.

    When I hear the term "spiraling" I actually often think of an airplane that has problems and ends up falling out of control, but in a spiral pattern; it's spiraling out of control. So often not only are things getting worse, they're getting uncontrollably or rapidly worse.
    Click to expand...
    Grade inflation means a lot of people are getting As, I believe.
     
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