vertigo /vur″tigō, vurtī″gō/ , a sensation of instability, giddiness, loss of equilibrium, or rotation, caused by a disturbance in the semicircular canal of the inner ear or the vestibular nuclei of the brainstem. The sensation that one’s body is rotating in space is called subjective vertigo, whereas the sensation that objects are spinning around the body is termed objective vertigo. See also dizziness, positional vertigo, vestibular neuronitis.
