upheaval

American  

[uhp-hee-vuhl] / ʌpˈhi vəl /

noun

• upheavals
  plural

1. strong or violent change or disturbance, as in a society.

   the upheaval of war.

   Synonyms:

   turmoil, disorder, disruption

2. an act of upheaving, especially of a part of the earth's crust.

3. the state of being upheaved.

4. Geology. an upward warping of a part of the earth's crust, forcing certain areas into a relatively higher position than before.

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upheaval British  

/ ʌpˈhiːvəl /

noun

1. a strong, sudden, or violent disturbance, as in politics, social conditions, etc

2. geology another word for uplift

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• upheavals
  plural

Etymology

Origin of upheaval

First recorded in 1830–40; upheave + -al ²

Explanation

Upheaval means a violent or sudden change. You might talk about an upheaval in government following an election where many incumbents are replaced. Upheaval is a geological term for the upward displacement of the earth's crust that has stretched to include a change in power or ideas. If you suddenly found out your favorite teacher was running a pyramid scheme and had escaped to a Caribbean island, you might experience an upheaval in your attitude toward teachers in general.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

upheaval upheavals

You are a survivor and, given the kind of upheaval you have endured, you are living a different kind of American dream.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026

During this evolutionary upheaval, large sections of genetic material were rearranged, bringing regions of chromosomes that had previously been separated into close proximity.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026

In the past, Anwar appealed to Malaysians for solidarity towards migrants who fled upheaval in Myanmar credited to Min Aung Hlaing.

From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026

Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s wife, led the Gang of Four, a radical faction that used the 1966-1967 Cultural Revolution to persecute perceived enemies and throw China into upheaval.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

Firstly, even though Australia’s climate changed some 45,000 years ago, it wasn’t a very remarkable upheaval.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

It has survived wars and upheavals, but the famed handwoven Kashmir carpet industry is now battling a steady decline as younger generations abandon the painstaking craft.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

She sees a nation that has endured wars, depressions and cultural upheavals, and she wonders what inner resources we must cultivate to endure what comes next.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

Later dubbed "quantitative easing", such upheavals included the 1980s savings and loan crisis, the first Gulf War, the Mexican peso crisis and - shortly after he had retired - the global credit crisis in 2008.

From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026

With a series of major upheavals in the past month alone, Roberts has signaled that he is shifting to a two-minute offense.

From Slate ● May 13, 2026

But these personal upheavals were minor compared with the hornets’ nest soon to be stirred by Galileo’s new scientific discoveries.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin

Related Words

• cataclysm
• catastrophe
• disaster
• disorder
• disruption
• disturbance
• eruption
• explosion
• ferment
• outbreak
• revolution
• shakeout
• temblor
• tremor
• tumult
• turmoil