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

Communicable diseases and infections are widespread, and thousands have life-changing wounds from the war. — Kareem Chehayeb, Los Angeles Times, 12 Nov. 2026

Seeing people scratching and crawling to win life-changing money. — Tony Maglio, HollywoodReporter, 12 Nov. 2026

But despite how life-changing mobility aids can be for the people who need them, they are also heavily stigmatized. — Nicole Clark, Time, 8 Nov. 2026

Ahead of deployments or overseas tours, military families often contemplate potential life-changing events, including the death of a service member or illness of a spouse in a structured Family Contingency Plan. — Brianna Keilar, CNN Money, 30 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1747, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for life-changing

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