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
Gus Alexiou, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025
Ideally, Inauguration Day would not herald a sea change in federal policy, and it would not be left to the courts to put a stop to presidential proclamations that were understood to be unauthorized at the time they were issued.
—The Editors, National Review, 22 Jan. 2025
Russian analysts say that the impetus from Washington to revive diplomacy represents a potential sea change.
—Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Jan. 2025
The law, which a number of other states have sought to replicate, represents a sea change in immigration enforcement by giving states authority to enforce federal immigration law.
—Ian Max Stevenson, Idaho Statesman, 14 Jan. 2025
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Dictionary Entries Near sea change
Cite this Entry
“Sea change.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sea%20change. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
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