seismic

Based on Ancient Greek σεισμός (seismós, “shaking, earthquake”) +‎ -ic.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪzmɪk/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪzmɪk

seismic (not comparable)

1. Related to, or caused by an earthquake or other vibration of the Earth.

   seismic activity

2. (figuratively) Of very large or widespread effect.
   • 2018 January 27, Dafydd Pritchard, “Newport 1 - 1 Tottenham Hotspur”, in BBC Sport‎:

     With Spurs having avoided a seismic Cup upset, Newport's heroic display will be rewarded with a lucrative replay at Wembley.

   • 2023 February 22, Sir Michael Holden, “Comment: A farewell to micro-management”, in RAIL, number 977, page 3:

     But the most seismic change is the shift to being supportive of open access. In practice, most of the industry has collectively opposed this for the past 25 years. The Department for Transport has been particularly hostile, seeing it as little more than cherry-picking.

   • 2024 March 17, Ilan Stavans, “Will Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, a Jewish Woman, Blaze a Trail or Follow One?”, in The New York Times‎:

     That the two leading candidates are women is seismic in a country imbued with machismo, where gender violence is rampant and the fight for women’s rights has been especially sluggish under the incumbent president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO, who is limited by Mexico’s Constitution to one six-year term.

3. (of a place) Subject to earthquakes

   a seismic area

Borrowed from French séismique. By surface analysis, seism +‎ -ic.

seismic m or n (feminine singular seismică, masculine plural seismici, feminine and neuter plural seismice)

1. seismic