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Epoch   /ˈɛpək/  /ˈipək/   Listen
noun
Epoch  n.  
1.
A fixed point of time, established in history by the occurrence of some grand or remarkable event; a point of time marked by an event of great subsequent influence; as, the epoch of the creation; the birth of Christ was the epoch which gave rise to the Christian era. "In divers ages,... divers epochs of time were used." "Great epochs and crises in the kingdom of God." "The acquittal of the bishops was not the only event which makes the 30th of June, 1688, a great epoch in history." Note: Epochs mark the beginning of new historical periods, and dates are often numbered from them.
2.
A period of time, longer or shorter, remarkable for events of great subsequent influence; a memorable period; as, the epoch of maritime discovery, or of the Reformation. "So vast an epoch of time." "The influence of Chaucer continued to live even during the dreary interval which separates from one another two important epochs of our literary history."
3.
(Geol.) A division of time characterized by the prevalence of similar conditions of the earth; commonly a minor division or part of a period. "The long geological epoch which stored up the vast coal measures."
4.
(Astron.)
(a)
The date at which a planet or comet has a longitude or position.
(b)
An arbitrary fixed date, for which the elements used in computing the place of a planet, or other heavenly body, at any other date, are given; as, the epoch of Mars; lunar elements for the epoch March 1st, 1860.
Synonyms: Era; time; date; period; age. Epoch, Era. We speak of the era of the Reformation, when we think of it as a period, during which a new order of things prevailed; so also, the era of good feeling, etc. Had we been thinking of the time as marked by certain great events, or as a period in which great results were effected, we should have called the times when these events happened epochs, and the whole period an epoch. "The capture of Constantinople is an epoch in the history of Mahometanism; but the flight of Mahomet is its era."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Epoch" Quotes from Famous Books



... parties to canvass subscriptions for the poor from house to house, while the ladies left no stone unturned to further the cause of charity. It was a most remarkable epoch in the history of this country, and certainly in Liverpool the time was as trying as could possibly be conceived. Merchants and tradesmen were daily failing. Great houses, apparently able to stand any amount of pressure, gave way, and many of the provincial banks succumbed, ...
— Recollections of Old Liverpool • A Nonagenarian

... an early epoch in his Apprenticeship, did found a sort of Comradeny or Free Company, which, from the number of its constituent items, came to be intituled The Fourth Party, in the which ARTHUR modestly took subordinate place, with unobtrusive ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, November 7, 1891 • Various

... which Basil and Isabel now slowly moved, there were numbers of people lounging about on the sofas, in various attitudes of talk or vacancy; and at the tables there were others reading Lothair, a new book in the remote epoch of which I write, and a very fashionable book indeed. There was in the air that odor of paint and carpet which prevails on steamboats; the glass drops of the chandeliers ticked softly against each other, as the vessel shook with her respiration, like a comfortable sleeper, and imparted ...
— Composition-Rhetoric • Stratton D. Brooks

... become learned, and as the times themselves were not destitute of knowledge, there was not much room left for the success of mere fictions. Antiquity indeed has received fables that have at times been sufficiently improbable: but this epoch, which was already so cultivated, disdaining every fiction that was impossible, rejected[314] * * * We may therefore, perhaps, attach some credit to this story of Romulus's immortality, since human life was at that time experienced, ...
— Cicero's Tusculan Disputations - Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... Athens. It was only with the Medici that we began to hear of such distinguished ladies as Bianca Cappello; and in the long, commonplace annals of the Swiss commonwealth we should be able to recall no female name that lent lustre to any epoch. We should contrast this poverty with the riches of the French monarchy, adorned with the memories of Agnes Sorel, of Diane de Poitiers, of Madame de Montespan, of Madame de Pompadour, following one another in brilliant succession, and sharing not only ...
— Imaginary Interviews • W. D. Howells


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