shift
n. countablen. a change in position, direction, or the way something is done. It also means a set period of time when a group of people works, like a night shift at a hospital.
n. a slight change in position, direction, or tendency; also refers to a scheduled period of work in a business that operates continuously. Often used to describe a transition in opinion or policy.
There has been a major shift in public opinion lately.
The factory workers are exhausted because they just finished a twelve-hour night shift.
Economists observed a fundamental shift in consumer behavior as digital platforms began to replace traditional brick-and-mortar retail outlets across the country.
The noun is from Middle English schyft, shyffte. Cognate with German Schicht (“layer, shift”). The verb is from Middle English schiften, from Old English sċiftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic skiftijaną, skiptijaną, from earlier skipatjaną (“to organise, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European skeyb- (“to separate, divide, part”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, divide, separate, part”). Cognate with Scots schift, skift (“to shift”), West Frisian skifte, skiftsje (“to sort”), Dutch schiften (“to sort, screen, winnow, part”), German schichten (“to stack, layer”), Swedish skifta (“to shift, change, exchange, vary”), Norwegian skifte (“to shift”), Icelandic skipta (“to switch”). See ship.
Commonly takes the preposition 'in' when referring to a change (e.g., 'a shift in focus').