noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
Australia:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -iːtʃeɪndʒ
1
noun
Meaning 1
A movement of people from cities to the countryside.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
An act of relocating from an urban to a rural community.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From tree + change, modelled after seachange. According to the Australian author and demographer Bernard Salt, the word was coined by “a subeditor” in 2003 and thereafter adopted by him.