seiche

American  

[seysh] / seɪʃ /

noun

1. an occasional and sudden oscillation of the water of a lake, bay, estuary, etc., producing fluctuations in the water level and caused by wind, earthquakes, changes in barometric pressure, etc.

---

seiche British  

/ seɪʃ /

noun

1. a periodic oscillation of the surface of an enclosed or semienclosed body of water (lake, inland sea, bay, etc) caused by such phenomena as atmospheric pressure changes, winds, tidal currents, and earthquakes

---

seiche Scientific  

/ sāsh,sēch /

1. An oscillating wave in an enclosed body of water. A seiche may have a period from a few minutes to a few hours and is usually a result of seismic or atmospheric disturbances.

---

Etymology

Origin of seiche

Borrowed into English from Franco-Provençal around 1830–40

Example Sentences

Scientists estimate the waves, known as a seiche, were nearly 2 feet high.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2024

Devils Hole is home to the endangered pupfish, a unique breed that can face short-term challenges following the geological phenomenon, technically called a seiche.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 22, 2022

The brutal shaking would have been enough to trigger a large seiche, and the first blobs of glass would have started to rain down seconds or minutes afterward.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 29, 2019

This video shows a seiche generated in a swimming pool by an earthquake in Nepal in 2015.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2017

The maximum height of a recorded seiche at Geneva is rather over 6 ft.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 5 "Gassendi, Pierre" to "Geocentric" by Various

Related Words

• tsunami