Climate models largely underestimate the average rate of satellite-observed Antarctic sea-ice retreat each summer – to undermine 1) understanding and attribution of sea-ice trends and recent abrupt change and 2) confidence in projected sea-ice conditions and climate. We present a possible “missing link” in what drives Antarctica’s rapid seasonal sea-ice meltback – the role of waves in causing surface melting of floes by flooding them, removing their snow cover, grinding them into slush, and generating proliferation of ice algae that further darken the ice. These previously-neglected processes are estimated to reduce the albedo of snow-covered ice by up to 0.64 (64%), leading to increased solar absorption that enhances vertical melt rates by up to 6.1 cm per day – likely accelerated by five newly-identified physical-biological positive feedback mechanisms. This new research direction addresses a key gap in models, which account for wave effects on floe-size distributions and floe lateral and basal melting but overlook wave-driven snow removal, flooding, greening, albedo modification, surface melting and feedbacks. It encourages and guides further targeted observations and modelling aimed at quantifying the overall contribution of wave flooding, -greening, -pulverisation and -melting to the annual sea-ice cycle, planetary albedo and climate feedbacks, primary production and the uptake of atmospheric C0₂, and future sea-ice and climate projections in an increasingly-stormy Southern Ocean, as well as in a changing Arctic.