Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The process of being heaved upward.
- n. An instance of being so heaved.
- n. A sudden, violent disruption or upset: "the psychic upheaval caused by war” ( Wallace Fowlie).
- n. Geology A raising of a part of the earth's crust.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of upheaving, or the state of being upheaved; a heaving or lifting up; specifically, in geology, a disturbance of a part of the earth's crust, having as one of its results that certain areas occupy a higher position with reference to adjacent areas than they did before the disturbance took place. Upheaval is a part of the process by which mountain-chains have been formed; it is the opposite of subsidence. The subsidence of one region may cause the apparent upheaval of another adjacent to it.
Wiktionary
- n. the process of being heaved upward, especially the raising of part of the earth's crust
- n. a sudden violent upset, disruption or convulsion
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of upheaving, or the state of being upheaved; esp., an elevation of a portion of the earth's crust.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a violent disturbance
- n. disturbance usually in protest
- n. a state of violent disturbance and disorder (as in politics or social conditions generally)
- n. (geology) a rise of land to a higher elevation (as in the process of mountain building)
Etymologies
- From upheave + -al. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“This appears to happen in what we call the upheaval stage of family grief.”
The Huffington Post: Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D.: When Does Grief Become Mental Illness?
“This year's political upheaval is also reflected in the new tome, with Con-Dem, Con-Lib and Lib-Con all making the cut.”
The Guardian: Simples! Aleksandr the Meerkat gives the dictionary his word
“Religious thought was in upheaval and radical thinkers like Rabelais were emerging to challenge the religious status quo.”
Joanne Harris discusses Gentlemen & Players and her work in general.
“And that upheaval is typically accompanied by a prominent face.”
“Yet since world upheaval is pervasive, and there are three deaths the first in a car crash, the second in war, the third by suicide some may regard it as an anatomy of melancholy.”
“Whatever its final contours, the expected electoral upheaval is all but certain to reshape the remaining two years of Obama's term.”
The Washington Post: Republicans win House majority; Democrats retain Senate majority
“My way of surviving building upheaval is to try to mark out a few oases of calm in the chaos, a few places where I can sit relatively undisturbed to work.”
“However, if a compromise (such as Tunnelite) cannot be found soon, political upheaval is unavoidable.”
“How you managed through all that kitchen upheaval is a marvel, Lydia, really!”
“Granted, a major reason for the upheaval is simply the struggles of the ruling class.”
The Wall Street Journal: College Football's Rising Middle Class
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘upheaval’.
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 318 more...
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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movement (fast)
words describing fast action or movement
( open list, randomness, descriptive )
related:
http://www.wordnik.com...hurry, run, scamper, skip, stride, stampede, trample, scramble, dart, spring, spin, sprint and 141 more...
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AFET - diplomacy
broker a peace ac..., client state, deadlocked peace ..., embassy, freeze, goodwill ambassador, hinterland, interfere in dome..., intervene personally, maintain technica..., mediation, no business as usual and 670 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Looks like a digraph, but isn't
mishap, mishear, boathouse, courthouse, chophouse, ungainly, anthill, pothole, haphazard, upholstery, hothead, upheaval and 16 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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kingofbash's Words
bash, poleaxed, salacious, libertine, charlatan, aplomb, fortuitous, finagle, apoplectic, debutante, carte blanche, aardvark and 472 more...
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nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
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amy's GRE 2012
gimmicks, kowtow, unpretentious, skeptical, cynical, somber, prevaricate, equivocate, requisite, embellish, impregnable, procrastinate and 307 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Tory's First Wordie List
perambulate, mumpsimus, euphoric, peripatetic, mellifluous, soporific, neologism, nihilism, nepotism, effervescent, lascivious, esoteric and 217 more...
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Wrapped up in books
I'm reading books. And there are words and phrases I come upon for the first time, or that are used with usages that are new to me.
So, this is just a plain list of those words. Don't expect ...hobble, mackerel, crone, cavort, hoyden, rheumy, scatter, hiss, recoil, trundle, shatter, flaxen and 200 more...
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MsHalston's Words
theoretically, insufferable, apolitico, milquetoast, egregious, aplomb, elan, fraught, flummox, befrocked, moll, molten and 605 more...
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2007bee-r02
2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee Round 2
query, tendency, danceable, parachute, malignant, brutal, humanely, lyrically, deductible, shindig, gravel, embroidered and 274 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for upheaval.

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