Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A shaking of the Earth's surface; an earthquake or tremor.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane of from volcanic activity

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek seismos, from seiein, to shake.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek σεισμός (seismos, "shaking; earthquake").

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Examples

  • Ai's installation in the Northwest Laboratory building at Harvard is part of his recent engagement with the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the alleged corruption scandal involving the poorly constructed Sichuan schools that collapsed during the seism.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Alexandra Perloff-Giles 2011

  • The report, from the National Research Council, states that the last major quake to hit the United States was the 7.8 magnitude seism in San Francisco in 1906.

    ABC News: Top Stories 2011

  • Two hours later in another level of the shaft, four others were injured when another seism erupted.

    IOL: News 2010

  • Since a 7.2-magnitude seism devastated the western port city of Kobe and its environs in 1995, killing upwards of 6,000, the country, a pioneer in earthquake engineering research, has passed laws to make urban structures more disaster-proof than ever.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

  • Meanwhile, the two charts below brilliantly illustrate how these desperate efforts failed to prevent the world's bank ranking from experiencing a major seism (it is mostly in 2007 that the end of the American-British domination in this ranking was triggered).. secondly, astronomical amounts of liquidity injected in one year into the global financial system, particularly in the U.S. financial system, led all financial and political players to a total loss of touch with reality.

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENED 2009

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