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
Tim Houlne, Forbes.com, 28 Apr. 2025
Any disruption to that business model would be a sea change.
—Erik Shilling, Robb Report, 3 Apr. 2025
Justice Elena Kagan agreed that patients do have the right to choose their doctor under the law, and suggested that blocking them from suing would be a sea change.
—Lindsay Whitehurst, Chicago Tribune, 2 Apr. 2025
That’s a sea change from just two years earlier when the top three alternatives were public schools in the neighborhood, public schools outside the neighborhood, and charter schools.
—Ryan Craig, Forbes, 21 Mar. 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 5 May. 2025.
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