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# seismic

adjective (seismic)

«seismic» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. Seismic means to do with earthquakes or the shaking of the earth: seismic waves, seismic activity. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/seismic/#m1)
2. Seismic can also mean very big and important, like a huge change that shakes everything: a seismic shift. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/seismic/#m2)

### In the lessons

Science and geography: seismic waves travel through the Earth after an earthquake; a seismometer (seismograph) records them; New Zealand, Japan and California have a lot of seismic activity because they sit on plate edges. Everyday news: «a seismic shift in opinion» means a big change. Safety: in seismic zones buildings are made to sway without falling.

### Examples

- Seismic waves spread out from the centre of an earthquake. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/seismic/#x1)
- New Zealand has a lot of seismic activity. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/seismic/#x2)
- The seismic station recorded a small tremor last night. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/seismic/#x3)
- Schools in Japan practise for seismic events. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/seismic/#x4)
- Winning the cup caused a seismic change in the town's mood. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/seismic/#x5)
- Engineers build bridges to resist seismic shaking. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/seismic/#x6)
- We drew a seismic wave on graph paper in science. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/seismic/#x7)

### Note

Said «SIZE-mik». From a Greek word for shaking. Related words: seismology (study of earthquakes), seismologist, seismograph. Not the same as «cosmic» (to do with space). The «big change» sense is figurative.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «seismic» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/seismic/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«seismic» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/seismic.html) on Mova free.