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
David Blackmon, Forbes.com, 26 May 2025
That a group of MBAs, PhDs, and old Wall Street hands sees Coinbase as stable enough to represent the larger U.S. economy is a sea change.
—Catherine Baab, Quartz, 13 May 2025
As the team gathered, Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez entered the room to wish the players well and offer encouragement in the face of defeat, a visceral reminder of the sea change that is in the process of happening with the franchise.
—Jon Krawczynski, New York Times, 30 May 2025
Sponsorship for music events was his idea, too, and whatever the lasting effects of that sea change, the results for a decade beginning in 1966 were an immense gift to New Yorkers.
—Sheri Linden, HollywoodReporter, 27 May 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 19 Jun. 2025.
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