life-changing

adjective

life-chang·​ing ˈlīf-ˌchān-jiŋ 

: having or capable of having a significant impact on someone's life

a life-changing career opportunity

a life-changing injury

… in 1986 he took a year off to travel. The experience was life-changing and led to his 1991 decision to pursue writing full-time.

—Carolyn Hart

(humorous) Made with fresh carrots, pineapple, a blend of warm spices and a homemade brown butter cream cheese frosting, this carrot cake recipe is life-changing …

—Jocelyn Delk Adams

Examples of life-changing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Naturally, Celebrity Traitors doesn’t involve the same life-changing promise of hundreds of thousands of pounds that can often make participants quite emotionally erratic in the civilian version. — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 29 Oct. 2026

A little girl from Ireland is in Philadelphia getting life-changing treatments for a spinal disorder that can sometimes be life-threatening. — Stephanie Stahl, CBS News, 28 Oct. 2026

These were expensive and life-changing burdens, even for those who avoided trial and conviction. — Barton Gellman, New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2026

On the far left, presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has backed demonstrators and criticized policing that has left some teenage protesters with life-changing injuries. — ABC News, 24 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1747, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for life-changing

• interchanging
• rearranging
• arranging
• exchanging
• unchanging
• changing
• ranging