Make Your Point > Archived Issues > TAILSPIN
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If your stocks are slipping, your ratings are sagging, your profits are plunging, your approval rating is sinking, or things in general are going extremely poorly and there's nothing you can do stop it, you're in a tailspin. You're tailspinning.
With the word tailspin, you're painting an aeronautical image of a sharp decline or a sudden failure.
What if you want to paint a nautical image instead? You could use a word like sink or shipwreck. Or sc___le, which means "to sink a ship by poking holes in it, or to destroy something, as if it's a ship that you're sinking."
Either way, if the descent into destruction that you're describing is swift and inevitable, you might call it a f_c_l_s d_sc_ns_s: a quick, easy path to destruction.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
make your point with...
"TAILSPIN"
If you're flying a plane, and your engine stalls out, and you fall helplessly, with the tail of your plane spinning around, that's a tailspin:
Pshewwwwwwwww!
More generally, a tailspin is a quick, helpless fall into a bad situation.
Pronunciation:
TALE spin
Part of speech:
Both a noun (the countable kind: "this tailspin," "those tailspins")
and a verb (the intransitive kind: "we were tailspinning into misery," "her career tailspun that year").
Other forms:
tailspins, tailspun (or "tailspinned," take your pick), tailspinning
How to use it:
Use this casual but powerful word to compare any failure to an airplane falling feebly from the sky.
Often we talk about someone's tailspin into some terrible state: her tailspin into madness, his tailspin into poverty and obscurity, their tailspin into scandal and disgrace.
More specifically, we talk about someone (or something--like lives, ratings, reputations, companies, industries, or economies) going into a tailspin, falling into a tailspin, being in a tailspin, being sent into a tailspin, and so on.
examples:
"California’s once-proud recycling reputation is in a tailspin."
— Lisa M. Krieger, Seattle Times, 8 April 2019
"The team was in a tailspin when Flacco was injured, and it appeared that Coach John Harbaugh's job was in jeopardy."
— Benjamin Hoffman, New York Times, 13 February 2019
has this page helped you understand "tailspin"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "tailspin" without saying "plunge" or "plummet."
try it out:
Fill in the blanks: "(Some episode, event, decision, move, game, or play) sent (some show or sports team) into a tailspin."
Example 1: "The writers' strike of 2007-2008 sent dozens of shows into a tailspin."
Example 2: "You might guess that Season Six's musical episode--yes, the characters all sang and danced, some very poorly, all very campily--would have sent Buffy the Vampire Slayer into a tailspin, but it only got better from there."
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
Our game this month is "Big Bang Thicket."
In each issue, hack your way through the polysyllabic title of an episode of The Big Bang Theory, and use your knowledge of vocabulary to answer the question about what happens in that episode.
From the previous issue:
In "The Maternal Congruence," does Sheldon argue constantly with his roommate's mother, or does he get along a little too well with her?
Answer:
He gets along a little too well with her. Congruent things, or in this case, people, are suitable, consistent, or harmonious.
Try this one today:
In "The Spaghetti Catalyst," does a spaghetti dinner drag on for hours or inspire a friendship to heal?
review this word:
1. The opposite of TAILSPIN is
A. ASCENT.
B. NOSEDIVE.
C. CONSISTENCY.
2. _____ sent their friendship into a tailspin.
A. The road trip
B. The loan, never repaid,
C. Their different tastes in music
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
If your stocks are slipping, your ratings are sagging, your profits are plunging, your approval rating is sinking, or things in general are going extremely poorly and there's nothing you can do stop it, you're in a tailspin. You're tailspinning.
"TAILSPIN" If you're flying a plane, and your engine stalls out, and you fall helplessly, with the tail of your plane spinning around, that's a tailspin:
"California’s once-proud recycling reputation is in a tailspin."
Explain the meaning of "tailspin" without saying "plunge" or "plummet."
Fill in the blanks: "(Some episode, event, decision, move, game, or play) sent (some show or sports team) into a tailspin."
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. The opposite of TAILSPIN is
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