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
Tom O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Nov. 2025
All three highly confidential cases had tens of millions of pounds, as well as reputations, riding on the outcome and each helps to illustrate the sea change in football’s relationship with law.
—Philip Buckingham, New York Times, 19 Nov. 2025
Autonomous driving has caught the imagination of tech companies and the auto industry, who predict a sea change in the transportation sector.
—Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Nov. 2025
The 2010 law is more popular than ever, a sea change from 15 years ago, when Americans were more evenly divided on the law.
—Sam Gringlas, NPR, 5 Nov. 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 28 Nov. 2025.
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