sea change
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sea change
- /ˈsiːˌt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒ/ US, UK
Where it comes from
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.
noun sea changes
-
A profound transformation; a metamorphosis.
Public opinion has undergone a sea change since the 2002 elections.
Similar: development, transfiguration, transmogrification, conversion, metamorphosis, transfigurement, transformation, transmutation, sea change
Translations
Every language
noun profound transformation — see also metamorphosis
| Español | cambio profundo, cambio radical |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 巨變 /巨变 jùbiàn |
| Français | changement en profondeur |
| Deutsch | Gezeitenwechsel |
| Русский | по́лная трансформа́ция pólnaja transformácija, по́лное измене́ние pólnoje izmenénije |
| العربية | تغير البحر taghayar albahr |
Talk about this word "sea change." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sea%20change. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. sea change. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sea%20change "sea change." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sea%20change.Cite this
@misc{sea_change_2026,
title = {sea change},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sea%20change},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
