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writhe

 
(rīTH) pronunciation

v., writhed, writh·ing, writhes.

v.intr.
  1. To twist, as in pain, struggle, or embarrassment.
  2. To move with a twisting or contorted motion.
  3. To suffer acutely.
v.tr.
To cause to twist or squirm; contort.

n.
The act or an instance of writhing; a contortion.

[Middle English writhen, from Old English wrīthan.]

writher writh'er n.

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Roget's Thesaurus:

writhe

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verb

  1. To twist and turn, as in pain, struggle, or embarrassment: agonize, squirm, toss, turn. See repetition.
  2. To move or proceed with short irregular motions up and down or from side to side: squiggle, squirm, waggle, wiggle, worm, wriggle. See move/halt, repetition.


v

Definition: contort; toss back and forth
Antonyms: be still

Word Tutor:

writhe

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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: To move in a twisting or contorted motion (especially when struggling).

pronunciation I could do nothing but writhe in pain after I banged my toe against the wall.

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Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'writhe'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to writhe, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Writhe.

In knot theory, the writhe is a property of an oriented link diagram. The writhe is the total number of positive crossings minus the total number of negative crossings.

A direction is assigned to the link at a point in each component and this direction is followed all the way around each component. If as you travel along a link component and cross over a crossing, the strand underneath goes from right to left, the crossing is positive; if the lower strand goes from left to right, the crossing is negative. One way of remembering this is to use a variation of the right-hand rule.

Knot-crossing-plus.svg Knot-crossing-minus.svg
Positive
crossing
Negative
crossing

For a knot diagram, using the right-hand rule with either orientation gives the same result, so the writhe is well-defined on unoriented knot diagrams.

A Type I Reidemeister move changes the writhe by 1

The writhe of a knot is unaffected by two of the three Reidemeister moves: moves of Type II and Type III do not affect the writhe. Reidemeister move Type I, however, increases or decreases the writhe by 1. This implies that the writhe of a knot is not an isotopy invariant of the knot itself — only the diagram. By a series of Type I moves one can set the writhe of a diagram for a given knot to be any integer at all.

See also

References

  • Adams, Colin (2004), The Knot Book: An Elementary Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Knots, American Mathematical Society, ISBN 0-8218-3678-1 



Translations:

Writhe

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Dansk (Danish)
v. intr. - vride sig, krympe sig, sno sig
v. tr. - vride sig, krympe sig, sno sig
n. - vridning

Nederlands (Dutch)
kronkelen (van pijn)

Français (French)
v. intr. - se tortiller
v. tr. - se tortiller
n. - contorsion

Deutsch (German)
v. - sich winden
n. - Verzerrung

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - σφαδάζω, σπαρταρώ
n. - σπαρτάρημα, σφαδασμός

Italiano (Italian)
contorcersi, convulsione

Português (Portuguese)
v. - torcer(-se), sofrer mentalmente
n. - estremecimento (m), convulsão (f)

Русский (Russian)
корча, корчится, остро переживать, скрутить

Español (Spanish)
v. intr. - retorcerse, contorsionarse, angustiarse
v. tr. - retorcer en espigas o pliegues
n. - retorcimiento, contorsión

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - vrida
n. - vridning

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
蠕动, 翻滚, 扭动, 扭曲, 翻腾, 缠绕, 苦恼

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
v. intr. - 蠕動, 翻滾, 扭動
v. tr. - 扭曲, 翻騰, 纏繞
n. - 翻騰, 苦惱

한국어 (Korean)
v. intr. - (몸을) 비틀다, 굽히다
v. tr. - 몸부림치다, 고민하다, 구불구불 움직이다
n. - 몸부림, 고뇌

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - たうち回る, 苦悩する
n. - 身もだえ, 苦悩, あがき

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يلوي, يطوي, يلف, يضفر, يجدل, يتمعج, يتلوى, يتضور (الاسم) تلو‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. intr. - ‮התפתל, התייסר, סבל יסורים נפשיים רציניים‬
v. tr. - ‮סובב (את הגוף וכו')‬
n. - ‮התפתלות, התייסרות, סיבוב (של הגוף וכו'), יסורים נפשיים רציניים‬


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American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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