quantum leap
8
5.5
- noun
- /ˈkwɒntəm liːp/
:
salto cuántico
- But then I'd explain it and say, look, if the change is going to make a massive quantum leap forward, make the change.
- a quantum leap forward
- take a quantum leap
- make a quantum leap
It's like like a quantum leap in your mind.
- It's like like a quantum leap in your mind.
- And we're now trying to expand that in a quantum leap with Saudi Arabia.
- You will not engineer that next quantum leap unless you personally change.
- But then I'd explain it and say, look, if the change is going to make a massive quantum leap forward, make the change.
- Japan, right in the middle of major reforms, is now making, I dare say, a quantum leap.
- And to make a change, you've got to take the first leap, which will then lead to a quantum leap.
- Boom, you have the quantum leap and then what must you do?
- But write this down when you have the quantum leap, you have to back up and re stabilize.
Examples
-
The full ramifications of this remarkable document have yet to be felt, but already it represents a quantum leap in our thinking about children.
Academic text (2001) -
Defensive line play needs to make a quantum leap from last year and what I saw in the preseason warm-up.
Blog text (2) -
The solution, therefore, requires a quantum leap in thinking and a total break with the current system.
Blog text (25) -
My guess is that your respect for the other person took a quantum leap.
Blog text (25) -
Ultimately, the feedback loop that embraces mind and body is the basis for a quantum leap in health for everyone.
Blog text (15) -
Papua New Guinea is in the midst of a quantum leap from the Stone Age to the Plastic Age.
Academic text (1994) -
"Too little has been done since then to preserve our planet, but it isn't too late if we take a quantum leap forward in our thinking.
Academic text (2009) -
The arrival of adolescence coincided with a quantum leap in his already intense religiosity.
Academic text (1994) -
Beyond the present quantum leap in technological mediation lies the dramatic recurrence of an eighteenth-century phenomenon: individualized learning.
Academic text (1998) -
The invention of the smartphone was a quantum leap in communication technology.
Synonyms
242
3.9
A sudden important discovery or advance that solves a big problem
131
3.2
A sudden big change or increase
49
4.1
Important progress toward a goal
1
6.1
A big step forward in one area of work or study
A very large and sudden improvement or step forward
Antonyms
How Significant
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'leap' clearly conveys a sudden jump or change, and a learner who knows 'quantum' as an amount might infer a jump in magnitude, so part of the sense is recoverable from the constituents. However, 'quantum' is often technical and the conventionalized metaphor whereby 'quantum leap' means a very large or significant advance (rather than a literal discrete amount) is not fully predictable without exposure, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Quantum leap comes from science: a quantum is a very small amount and a leap is a jump between levels, so in the lab it named a tiny jump. People began using it for ideas and technology to show a sudden, big step forward, so today it means 'a sudden, very big advance'.