The DICT Development Group

  Upheaval \Up*heav"al\, n.
     The act of upheaving, or the state of being upheaved; esp.,
     an elevation of a portion of the earth's crust. --Lubbock.
     [1913 Webster]

  upheaval
      n 1: a state of violent disturbance and disorder (as in politics
           or social conditions generally); "the industrial revolution
           was a period of great turbulence" [syn: turbulence,
           upheaval, Sturm und Drang]
      2: a violent disturbance; "the convulsions of the stock market"
         [syn: convulsion, turmoil, upheaval]
      3: (geology) a rise of land to a higher elevation (as in the
         process of mountain building) [syn: upheaval, uplift,
         upthrow, upthrust]
      4: disturbance usually in protest [syn: agitation,
         excitement, turmoil, upheaval, hullabaloo]

  142 Moby Thesaurus words for "upheaval":
     about-face, accommodation, adaptation, adjustment, alteration,
     amelioration, apoplexy, apostasy, apotheosis, ascent, assumption,
     beatification, betterment, blaze, bouleversement, break, breakup,
     burst, canonization, cataclysm, catastrophe, change,
     change of heart, changeableness, chaos, clamor, climax, commotion,
     confusion, constructive change, continuity, conversion, convulsion,
     cyclone, defection, degeneration, degenerative change, deification,
     deterioration, deviation, diastrophism, difference, disaster,
     discontinuity, disorder, disruption, disturbance, divergence,
     diversification, diversion, diversity, downfall, elevation,
     enshrinement, erection, eruption, escalation, exaltation,
     explosion, fall, ferment, fit, fitting, flare-up, flip-flop, furor,
     furore, gale, gradual change, gust, heaving, height, hurricane,
     improvement, irruption, lifting, melioration, mitigation,
     modification, modulation, outbreak, outburst, outcry, overthrow,
     overturn, paroxysm, prostration, quake, qualification,
     radical change, raising, re-creation, realignment, rearing,
     redesign, reform, reformation, remaking, renewal, reshaping,
     restructuring, reversal, revival, revivification, revolution,
     sabotage, seizure, shift, spasm, stirring, storm, stroke,
     subversion, sudden change, sursum corda, switch, temblor, tempest,
     tidal wave, tornado, total change, transition, tsunami, tumult,
     turn, turnabout, unrest, upbuoying, upcast, uplift, uplifting,
     upping, uprearing, upset, upthrow, upthrust, upturn, variation,
     variety, violent change, whirlwind, worsening