sea change

See also: seachange

English

Alternative forms

• sea-change
• seachange

Etymology

From Shakespeare's The Tempest, 1, ii.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

sea change (plural sea changes)

1. (idiomatic) A profound transformation.

   Public opinion has undergone a sea change since the 2002 elections.

   • c.1610-1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2,

     Full fathom five thy father lies: / Of his bones are coral made: / Those are pearls that were his eyes: / Nothing of him that doth fade / But doth suffer a sea-change / Into something rich and strange.

   • 1910, Jack London, Theft: A Play In Four Acts, Actors' Description of Characters,

     Anthony Starkweather. […] Essentially a moral man, his rigid New England morality has suffered a sea change and developed into the morality of the master-man of affairs, equally rigid, equally uncompromising, but essentially Jesuitical in that he believes in doing wrong that right may come of it.

Translations

profound transformation

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 巨變／巨变 (zh) (jùbiàn), 巨变 (zh) (jùbiàn)

• Dutch: fundamentele verandering
• Finnish: käännekohta (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: changement en profondeur
• Persian: انقلاب (fa) (enqelâb), دگرگونی (fa) (degarguni)
• Russian: по́лное измене́ние n (pólnoje izmenénije), по́лная трансформа́ция f (pólnaja transformácija)
• Spanish: cambio profundo m