shift

Shift is a flexible term used across fields to denote moving from one state, position, or time to another. As a verb it means to move something or to change emphasis; as a noun it can refer to a period of work or to a change in arrangement.

In work contexts, a shift is a defined block of time during which employees are on duty. Shifts are common in healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, and other 24-hour operations. They may be fixed (day, evening, night) or rotate, and vary in length from a few hours to a full shift.

In computing and mathematics, a shift describes the movement of data or sequences. A bitwise shift moves binary digits left or right; logical shifts fill with zeros, while arithmetic shifts preserve the sign bit. More broadly, a shift can denote a translation of a sequence or function along an axis.

Other uses include the gear shift in vehicles, and the shift key on keyboards, which modifies the characters produced. In linguistics, phonetic shifts are systematic changes in pronunciation over time, as in the Great Vowel Shift. In geology and seismology, displacement along faults is sometimes described as a shift in rock positions.

The term also appears in everyday language to indicate any change that relocates or reorders something, from shifting furniture to shifting priorities.