tectonic

adjective

tec·​ton·​ic tek-ˈtä-nik How to pronounce tectonic (audio)
Synonyms of tectonicnext
1
: of or relating to tectonics
2
: having a strong and widespread impact
a tectonic shift in voting patterns
tectonically
tek-ˈtä-ni-k(ə-)lē How to pronounce tectonic (audio)
adverb

Synonyms

See all Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus 

Examples of tectonic in a Sentence

There has been a recent tectonic shift in voting patterns. a tectonic shift in societal trends occurred in the 1960s
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Yet, the tectonic plates of the party were already shifting. —Elizabeth Rees / Made By History, TIME, 1 Nov. 2024 And given Earth’s ever-changing geology, in which massive craters are covered over by volcanic activity and the movement of tectonic plates, the evidence of what happened millions of years ago is hard to find. —Ashley Strickland, CNN, 22 Oct. 2024 The moon meeting Uranus shifts you around like a tectonic plate. —USA TODAY, 19 Oct. 2024 There two tectonic plates are slowly moving apart and may eventually split the continent. —Jeanna Bryner, Scientific American, 17 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for tectonic 

Word History

Etymology

probably borrowed from German tektonisch "pertaining to broader structural features of the earth's crust," earlier "of building or construction," borrowed from Late Latin tectonicus "of a builder or architect," borrowed from Greek tektonikós "of a carpenter, skilled in carpentry or building," from tekton-, téktōn "woodworker, carpenter, craftsman" + -ikos -ic entry 1; téktōn going back to Indo-European *tetḱ-on- (whence also Sanskrit takṣan-, tákṣā "carpenter," Avestan tašan-, tašā "builder, creator"), n-stem derivative from a verbal base *tetḱ- "fashion, produce," whence Sanskrit tákṣati "(s/he) fashions, builds from wood," Avestan tāšt "(s/he) forms," Latvian tešu, tèst "to hew," Old Church Slavic tešǫ, tesati "to hew, fell," (with o-grade) Lithuanian tašýti "to hew"

Note: A root of the form *tetḱ- would be peculiar for Indo-European. Helmut Rix, et al., (Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2. Ausgabe, Wiesbaden, 2001) rescue the situation by hypothesizing that *tetḱ- represents a pre-Indo-European reduplicated aorist, *te-tḱ-, of a root *teḱ-, seen in unreduplicated form in Greek téknon "child, young of an animal" and étekon, tekeîn, aorist of tíktō, tíktein "to give birth to, beget, generate" (see dystocia). However—aside from the certain correspondence of Greek téktōn with Vedic Sanskrit takṣan-, Avestan tašan- —all other outcomes of this supposed root can be accounted for as *teḱ-s-, an extended form of *teḱ-. To explain this anomaly, Andrew Sihler (New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, 1995, p. 225) hypothesizes that téktōn is a conflation of a regular derivative *texōn and an unattested agentive derivative *téktōr, going back to *teks-tor-, (with cluster simplification as in hektós "sixth" corresponding to héx "six"). Traditionally added to the compared forms given in the etymology above are Latin texere "to weave, form by plaiting or twining, construct" and other words (see at text entry 1). See also technical entry 1.

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of tectonic was in 1894

Dictionary Entries Near tectonic

Tectona

tectonic

tectonics

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Tectonic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tectonic. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.

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Kids Definition

tectonic

adjective
tec·​ton·​ic tek-ˈtän-ik How to pronounce tectonic (audio)
: of or relating to tectonics
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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