sea change
noun
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In The Tempest, William Shakespeare’s final play, sea change refers to a change brought about by the sea: the sprite Ariel, who aims to make Ferdinand believe that his father the king has perished in a shipwreck, sings within earshot of the prince, “Full fathom five thy father lies...; / Nothing of him that doth fade / But doth suffer a sea-change / into something rich and strange.” This is the original, now-archaic meaning of sea change. Today the term is used for a distinctive change or transformation. Long after sea change gained this figurative meaning, however, writers 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
Chris Dimitriadis, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2025
This represents a remarkable sea change since the mid-20th century.
—Time, 5 Aug. 2025
But 2025 has marked a sea change for the skies: the rollout of fast, and free, connectivity on most of the world’s major airlines.
—Jaclyn Trop, Wired News, 2 July 2025
Beginning in the 1970s, a sea change in state and federal policy allowed large predators to make a comeback across California.
—Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for sea change
Cite this Entry
“Sea change.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sea%20change. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
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