quantum leap
Sudden major breakthrough
A quantum leap is a sudden, dramatic change or advance: The discovery represented a quantum leap in cancer treatment.
The phrase borrows from physics, where it describes an electron's instantaneous jump between energy levels—a tiny distance but without passing through intermediate states.
Popular usage emphasizes the dramatic scale of change rather than the instantaneous nature, often implying a breakthrough or transformation: Her promotion was a quantum leap in her career.
Forward movement or promotion
- innovationCreating something original
- progressMovement toward improvement
- revolutionViolent governmental overthrow
- transformationThorough change in form
discovery · milestone · pioneering · paradigm shift · game-changer · sea change · watershed · turning point
Negative subatomic particle
- energy levelAmount of vitality available
- photonElectromagnetic radiation unit
- atomicOf elemental particles
- PlanckQuantum theory's founder
orbital · discrete · particle · subatomic · wavefunction · excited state · emission · absorption
advancement
Forward movement or promotion
- innovationCreating something original
- progressMovement toward improvement
- revolutionViolent governmental overthrow
transformation · discovery · milestone · pioneering · paradigm shift · game-changer · sea change · watershed · turning point · radical change
electron
Negative subatomic particle
- energy levelAmount of vitality available
- photonElectromagnetic radiation unit
- atomicOf elemental particles
Planck · orbital · discrete · particle · subatomic · wavefunction · excited state · emission · absorption · transition
- scientific phrasesbig bang, black hole, natural selection, climate change, genetic code
- sci-fi tropesalien invasion, time travel, teleportation, first contact, robot uprising
- scientific metaphorsblack hole, big bang, DNA, evolution, chain reaction
- breakthrougheureka, aha moment, epiphany, revelation, realization
- progressprogress, in progress, promotion, raise, making progress
- Paradigm shiftrevolution, breakthrough, transformation, sea change, watershed
quantum leapbaby step
Minimal incremental progress
tweak · nudge · fine-tuning · blip
quantum leapgradual change
Slow, steady transformation
evolutionary change · linear progression · continuous improvement · crawl · slow and steady
quantum leapstagnation
Absence of flow or progress
backslide · standstill · regression · free fall · nosedive
leap, quantity, quantum, quantify, quantitative, leaper, quanta, quantization, quantized