shifting

/ˈʃɪftɪŋ/

/ˈʃɪftɪŋ/

Other forms: shiftings; shiftingly

The word shifting describes something that is taking a new direction either physically or in thought. If you’ve recently decided that the earth may be round, you are shifting from a flat-Earth viewpoint to a round-Earth one.

Shifting can be used in several senses, but the constant in all of them is change and movement. For example, shifting can describe moving earth: it is usually a bad idea to build your house on a plot of shifting land. The word can also refer to something that is regularly changing: Your friend whose favorite music regularly alternates from heavy metal to jazz to Chinese opera? She has a shifting taste in music.

Definitions of shifting

1. adjective

   changing position or direction
   “he drifted into the shifting crowd”

   “their nervous shifting glances”

   synonyms: shifty

   unsteady

   subject to change or variation
2. adjective

   continuously varying
   “taffeta with shifting colors”

   synonyms:

   variable

   liable to or capable of change
3. adjective

   (of soil) unstable
   “shifting sands”

   synonyms: unfirm

   loose

   not compact or dense in structure or arrangement
4. noun

   the act of moving from one place to another
   “his constant shifting disrupted the class”

   synonyms: shift

   type of:

   motion, move, movement

   the act of changing location from one place to another