sea change
UK/ˈsiːˌt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒ/
sea change noun: a profound transformation; a metamorphosis.
Noun
sea change (plural sea changes)
- A profound transformation; a metamorphosis.
- Public opinion has undergone a sea change since the 2002 elections.
- A few days wrought, as it were, a magical "sea change" in everything around us. The late dark and angry sea, lashed up into roaring and swashing surges, became calm and sunny; the rude winds died away; and gradually a light breeze sprang up directly aft.1842 March, “The Bermudas”, in The Ladies’ Cabinet of Fashion, Music, and Romance, volume VII, London: Geo[rge] Henderson, […], →OCLC, page 188
sea change meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Pashto and Arabic
sea change in Urdu
- profound transformation — see also metamorphosis
- سمندر کی تبدیلی smender kee tbdele
sea change in Bengali
- একটি গভীর রূপান্তর, একটি রূপপরিবর্তন
sea change in Pashto
- profound transformation — see also metamorphosis
- د سمندري بدلون de smendree bidloon
sea change in Arabic
- profound transformation — see also metamorphosis
- تغير البحر taghayar albahr
More languagesFewer languages
- sea change in Persian
- دگرگونی degarguni, انقلاب enqelâb
Examples of sea change in a sentence
- His [Frederick Marryat's] last work, ‘Percival Keane’ (1842), betrays no falling-off, but, on the contrary, is one of the most vigorous and interesting of his ‘sea changes.’1851, “Captain Frederick Marryat”, in Robert Chambers, editor, Cyclopædia of English Literature: A Selection of the Choicest Productions of...
- [S]uddenly, a "sea change" came over his features, […]1854 January 14, Supplement to The Courant. […], volume XIX, number 1, Hartford, Conn.: Boswell & Faxon, →OCLC, page 8, column 1:
- There has been a sea change in the language used to describe post-Roman times.2005, Bryan Ward-Perkins, “Did Rome Ever Fall?”, in The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, 1st paperback edition, Oxford...
- While it applied to all workplaces, it gradually brought about a sea change in the attitude towards death and injury.2022 January 26, John Crosse, “When the tide turned to a safer railway...”, in RAIL, number 949, page 53:
Synonyms of sea change
Forms of sea change
| plural | sea changes |
|---|
Origin of sea change
From Act I, scene ii, of The Tempest (1610–1611) by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616), spelling modernized: “Full fathom five thy father lies, / Of his bones are coral made: / Those are pearls that were his eyes, / Nothing of him that doth fade, / But doth suffer a sea-change / Into something rich and strange”. The passage refers to how a drowned man’s body lying on the sea bed had been transformed by the sea.
Words formed from sea change
Questions about sea change
- What does sea change mean?
- Sea change means a profound transformation; a metamorphosis.
- What is sea change in Urdu?
- Sea change in Urdu is سمندر کی تبدیلی (smender kee tbdele). See Sea change meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use sea change in a sentence?
- His [Frederick Marryat's] last work, ‘Percival Keane’ (1842), betrays no falling-off, but, on the contrary, is one of the most vigorous and interesting of his ‘sea changes.’
- What part of speech is sea change?
- Sea change is a noun.
- How do you pronounce sea change?
- Sea change is pronounced /ˈsiːˌt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sea change?
- The plural of sea change is sea changes.
Words near sea change in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sea change (page history and authors); sea change (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-sea change.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sea change.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sea_change. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.