gyro
gyro Lexical Profile
gyro Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A Greek dish consisting of meat (such as lamb, beef, or pork) cooked on a vertical rotisserie, typically served wrapped in a pita or flatbread with tomatoes, onions, and tzatziki sauce.
"We stopped at a local street vendor to grab a gyro and some fries for lunch."
A device consisting of a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rotation is free to assume any orientation, used for measuring or maintaining orientation.
"The pilot relied heavily on the aircraft's gyro to maintain a steady heading through the thick cloud cover."
Word Nuance & Usage
The pronunciation of 'gyro' changes depending on its definition: the Greek dish is traditionally pronounced 'YEE-roh', whereas the mechanical device is pronounced 'JIE-roh'.
• Rhymes for gyro
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
The food item is borrowed directly from Modern Greek 'gyros' (γύρος), meaning 'turn', referring to the meat cooking on a rotating vertical spit. The mechanical sense is a 19th-century clipping of 'gyroscope' or 'gyrocompass', derived from the Ancient Greek 'gūros' (circle, ring).
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.