Meanings
plural gear changes
- especiallyautomotiveAn instance of changing gears (shifting gears).
This transmission is so smooth and quiet that you hardly even notice a gear change.
2 more examples
All the fun of driving had been taken out of them with the abolition of a gear-change, with hydraulic-assisted steering and spongy suspension.
1954, Ian Fleming, “Death of a Pelican”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 134The train speeds at which gear changes are made are 15, 27 and 41 m.p.h., and quite an appreciable number of seconds can be economised in running if precisely the correct moment is chosen to change.
1960 August, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 463
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 變速桿 /变速杆
- 變速桿 /变速杆 (biànsùgān)mechanism which changes gears in a car
Finnish vaihteenvalitsin
- vaihteenvalitsinmechanism which changes gears in a car
Italian cambio
- cambiomechanism which changes gears in a car
Norwegian Bokmål girskift, girskifte
- girskiftmechanism which changes gears in a car
- girskiftemechanism which changes gears in a car
Polish zmiana biegów
- zmiana biegówmechanism which changes gears in a car
Spanish cambio de marchas
- cambio de marchasmechanism which changes gears in a car
Cite this entry
gear change. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gear%20change
“gear change.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gear%20change. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gear change,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gear%20change.
Source: gear change on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.