Centrifugal or centripetal?
centrifugal is an adjective meaning “Tending, or causing, to recede from the center”; centripetal is an adjective meaning “Directed or moving towards a centre”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) centrifugal is about 5.8 times as common as centripetal.
What is the difference between centrifugal and centripetal?
| centrifugal | centripetal | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | adjective |
| Meaning | Tending, or causing, to recede from the center Expanding first at the summit, and later at the base, as a flower cluster A rotating machine used to separate massecuite into sugar crystals and molasses | Directed or moving towards a centre Directed towards the central nervous system; afferent |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Pronunciation | /sɛnˈtɹɪf.(j)ə.ɡl̩/ /ˌsɛn.tɹɪˈfjuː.ɡl̩/ /sɛnˈtɹɪf.jʊ.ɡl̩/ | /sɛnˈtɹɪp.ə.tl̩/ /ˌsɛn.tɹɪˈpiː.tl̩/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | about once in every 6 million words |
Sources: centrifugal and centripetal in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of centrifugal and centripetal
centrifugal
- 1
Tending, or causing, to recede from the center
- 2
A rotating machine used to separate massecuite into sugar crystals and molasses
- 3
Expanding first at the summit, and later at the base, as a flower cluster
- 4
Having the radicle turned toward the sides of the fruit, as some embryos
centripetal
- 1
Directed or moving towards a centre
- 2
Directed towards the central nervous system; afferent
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, centrifugal or centripetal?
centrifugal appears about once in every 1 million words; centripetal about once in every 6 million words.
centrifugal about once in every 1 million wordscentripetal about once in every 6 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search centrifugal vs centripetal?
“centrifugal vs centripetal” is searched about 14,800 times a month on Google and 210 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“centripetal vs centrifugal”, “centrifugal or centripetal”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.