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Synonyms

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2024

“The earthquake causes what’s called a seismic seiche, and it’s basically a sloshing of the water back and forth.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 25, 2019

Richards recalled that the 2011 Japanese earthquake produced bizarre, five-foot seiche waves in an absolutely calm Norwegian fjord thirty minutes after the quake, in a place unreachable by the tsunami.

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

Cenéle amus: salanaig buale ⁊ buicc brodnai ⁊ eóin erchoille ⁊ seiche corad. cenela BM buale om.

From The Triads of Ireland by Meyer, Kuno

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.