Which statement best describes semantic drift?

• A. The sudden replacement of words with new terms every century
• B. The tendency for words' meanings to morph gradually over time to the point that the distance between the original meaning and the current one can be quite striking
• C. The adoption of loanwords from other languages only
• D. The mixing of dialects within a region

Answer: (B)

Semantic drift is the gradual change in a word’s meaning over time, so that the current sense can diverge noticeably from the original. This slow shift accumulates across generations, and the gap between old and new meanings can become quite striking. That idea fits the statement describing meanings morphing gradually over time.

For example, words like nice or terrible have shifted a lot in how they’re used since older stages of English, illustrating how meanings can move far from where they started.

The other options describe different processes. A talks about sudden replacement of terms every century, which isn’t how drift works since drift is gradual, not abrupt. C refers to borrowing from other languages, which is about loanwords, not internal semantic change. D describes mixing of dialects, which is about diffusion between varieties rather than a change in a word’s meaning over time.