sea change

noun

1

archaic : a change brought about by the sea

2

: a marked change : transformation

a sea change in public policy

Did you know?

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

Recent Examples on the Web

Disarming would represent a sea change for Hamas, whose founding charter calls for armed resistance against Israel, and which sees its arsenal, including rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives, as lying at the heart of its identity. — Samy Magdy, Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2026

Minotaur, 304 pages, $28 The subgenre of culinary mysteries has undergone a sea change in the past 16 years. — Oline H. Cogdill, Sun Sentinel, 20 July 2026

Lifting this designation on Syria could facilitate a whole range of investments in the country, including in oil, banking, technology, and real estate -- which could lead to an economic sea change for the country and more overall stability. — Mariam Khan, ABC News, 8 July 2026

Adding complex investments like private equity or hedge funds as a standard part of the mix would be a sea change. — Paul Kiel, ProPublica, 8 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1612, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for sea change

• arrange
• derange
• estrange
• exchange
• midrange
• grange
• mange
• range
• strange
• interchange
• rearrange

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