tectonic shift
1
6.8
- noun
- /tɛkˈtɒnɪk ʃɪft/
:
cambio tectónico
- The first urges enhanced due process considerations as tectonic shifts are anticipated in the state and local tax world in relation to sales and use tax collection.
- undergo a tectonic shift
It really feels like this tectonic shift is happening right now and I am desperate to get people involved.
- It really feels like this tectonic shift is happening right now and I am desperate to get people involved.
- It's, we're in a, a tectonic shift, like, like the tectonic word and everything's changing really, really rapidly.
Examples
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The New World wines of Australia and New Zealand now effortlessly trounce their failing Old World counterparts, having enacted a tectonic shift in the global wine producers' market over the last 20 years.
Blog text (30) -
If there is any single glaring lesson from the present tectonic shift in Middle East politics, it is that the peoples of the region have immense power to transform the situation themselves.
Blog text (29) -
This tectonic shift demands that businesses invest in a higher level of trust in their employees.
Blog text (26) -
Much of it clearly is, but I think there is something deeper at work here, an underlying tectonic shift in the foundation of employment.
Blog text (20) -
It really feels like this tectonic shift is happening right now and I am desperate to get people involved.
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In the case of Kodak and Motorola, management missed tectonic shifts in their industries until it was too late.
Blog text (31) -
Going further by directly linking the needs of business with larger public education reform goals, Jim Wood said, "There is a tectonic shift going on in K-12 education."
Blog text (16) -
This represented a tectonic shift in Western cultural foundations not only because of the war itself but because of two phenomena that arose out of it: feminism and psychotherapy.
Academic text (2002) -
These Western and Eastern European realities meet my California conviction that multicultural societies are how things should be; the result is a recognition that identity and its connection to territory are undergoing a tectonic shift everywhere.
Academic text (1995) -
The rise of remote work during the pandemic triggered a tectonic shift in the job market.
Synonyms
19
6.3
A big, lasting difference in the way people think or do things
3
6.0
A very large and sudden change in ideas, beliefs, or ways of doing things
Antonyms
How Significant
1
6.8
810
4.1
241
3.7
228
3.7
∞
1.1
28
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun combines 'tectonic' (relating to large-scale earth-crust movement) with 'shift' (a change), creating a metaphorical extension in which a geological, large-scale movement maps onto a major, fundamental change in a field. This mapping is predictable for learners who know both words but relies on world knowledge and a metaphorical transfer, so it is partly transparent rather than fully compositional.
Etymology
The phrase tectonic shift comes from the image of the Earth's huge rock plates under the ground slowly moving: tectonic refers to those plates and a shift is a big move. That's why we say tectonic shift when we mean 'a major change' in a business, idea, or situation.