epoch

CEFRC1

/ˈiːpɒk/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A long period marked by important events or changes.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A notable event which marks the beginning of such a period.

Examples

  • The age of chivalry is the favourite epoch of the romantics.

  • There have always been fashionable faces and expressions which marked an epoch.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
3

Also pronounced

  • /ˈeɪˌpɑk/
  • /ˈɛpɒk/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A specific instant in time, chosen as the point of reference or zero value of a system that involves identifying instants of time.

  2. A particular period of history, or of a person's life, especially one considered noteworthy or remarkable.

  3. A geochronologic unit of hundreds of thousands to millions of years; a subdivision of a period, and subdivided into ages (or sometimes subepochs).

More examples

In context

  • The neural network was trained over 500 epochs.

  • UNIX epoch; J2000 epoch

  • And it occasionally happens that a period in which one had, hitherto, been mainly looking for the coming to birth of new things, suddenly reveals itself as an epoch of fading and decay.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The invention of the printing press marked a new blank in history.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Medieval Latin epocha, from Ancient Greek ἐποχή (epokhḗ, “a check, cessation, stop, pause, epoch of a star, i.e., the point at which it seems to halt after reaching the highest, and generally the place of a star; hence, a historical epoch”), from ἐπέχω (epékhō, “to hold in, check”), from ἐπι- (epi-, “upon”) + ἔχω (ékhō, “to have, hold”). Doublet of epoche.