sea change
noun
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In William Shakespeare's The Tempest, a sea change is a change brought about by the sea, as illustrated by the words of the sprite Ariel to Ferdinand, said to make the prince believe that his father has perished in a shipwreck: "Full fathom five thy father lies...; / Nothing of him that doth fade / But doth suffer a sea-change / into something rich and strange." This meaning of sea change is the original one, but it's now archaic. Long after sea change had gained its figurative meaning—that of any marked or permanent transformation—writers nonetheless continued to allude to Shakespeare's literal one; Charles Dickens, Henry David Thoreau, and P.G. Wodehouse all used the term as an object of the verb suffer, but now a sea change is just as likely to be undergone or experienced.
Examples of sea change in a Sentence
Axios, 8 Jan. 2025
That would mark a sea change from the Biden administration, which took a far more skeptical approach to cryptocurrencies.
—Rafael Nam, NPR, 6 Jan. 2025
Modern investors who cling too tightly to certain valuation metrics to make their stock decisions are overlooking sea changes like social media, iPhones, meme coins, and other forms of technology that have made storytelling a bigger part of the investment calculus.
—Michael Cannivet, Forbes, 29 Dec. 2024
Eilidh Munro and Isabella Bassett – The Herring Queen
A teenage girl is crowned The Herring Queen in a tiny Scottish fishing village’s beauty pageant as a community holds onto the past and the world faces a sea change.
—Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for sea change 
Dictionary Entries Near sea change
Cite this Entry
“Sea change.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sea%20change. Accessed 19 Jan. 2025.
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