upheaval
/ʌpˈhiːv(ə)l
/noun
1A violent or sudden change or disruption to something: major upheavals in the financial markets [mass noun]: times of political upheaval...
- In many European countries major political upheavals and wars since the 18th century caused dispersion of cultural artefacts such as portraits throughout the world.
- Her books, bearing ambitious titles such as Women, Resistance and Revolution, helped shape one of the biggest political upheavals of the 20th century.
- Marx's own time was similarly marked by a series of turbulent social, political, and economic upheavals, all of which helped shape and produce Marxism.
Synonyms
disruption, upset, disturbance, trouble, turbulence;
disorder, disorganization, confusion, turmoil, pandemonium, bedlam, furore, uproar, disarray, chaos, mayhem, cataclysm;
revolution, violent change, sudden change
2An upward displacement of part of the earth’s crust: the first upheaval produced a hill which was called Roof Mountain...
- The Boxing Day tsunami and the Sumatran earthquake on March 28, which registered 9 on the Richter scale, have made the world conscious of these massive upheavals of the Earth.
- Since being exposed through the earth's upheavals on the top of a mountain in Antarctica, the rest of the fish's body had now unfortunately been eroded away.
- The geological upheavals that divided rivers and river basins provided opportunities for speciation when fish populations were isolated.
