Seismic

How to spell seismic

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce seismic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does seismic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to or caused by earthquakes and movements of the earth.
2. adjectiveOf very great size, effect, or significance; dramatically far-reaching.

Seismic in a sentence

• The new building was designed to withstand seismic activity in the region.

• The election result marked a seismic shift in public opinion.

• Engineers studied the seismic data recorded during the tremor.

• The merger had a seismic impact on the entire industry.

Where does seismic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes from the Greek seismos, meaning 'an earthquake' or, more literally, 'a shaking'. That noun was formed from the verb seiein, 'to shake' or 'to move violently'. English assembled the adjective in the middle of the nineteenth century, around the time the new science of measuring earthquakes was taking shape, simply by adding the familiar adjective ending -ic. The same Greek root gives us 'seismograph' and 'seismology', the instrument and study devoted to tremors. The spelling trap is the opening 'sei', which sounds like 'sy' rather than 'see', so writers easily reach for 'sy' or muddle the vowel order; remembering the shared 'seis-' across seismic, seismograph, and seismology fixes it.

How the word is built

• seism- (from Greek seismos: earthquake, a shaking)
• -ic (adjective suffix)