epoch

/ˈɪpɑk/

/ˈɪpɒk/

Other forms: epochs

An epoch is a period of time marked by certain characteristics: You might describe several peaceful decades in a nation's history as an epoch of peace.

In geologic time, an epoch is a division of a period, and an age is a division of an epoch. Epoch can also refer to a distinct and important period of history, or an event that marks such a period: an epoch in the world of ballet, for example. The noun epoch is from New Latin epocha, from Greek epochē, "pause, check, fixed time."

Definitions of epoch

1. noun

   a period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event
   synonyms: era

   examples:

   Caliphate

   the era of Islam's ascendancy from the death of Mohammed until the 13th century; some Moslems still maintain that the Moslem world must always have a calif as head of the community

   Christian era

   the time period beginning with the supposed year of Christ's birth

   types:

   day

   an era of existence or influence

   age, historic period

   an era of history having some distinctive feature

   modern era

   the present or recent times

   antiquity

   the historic period preceding the Middle Ages in Europe

   golden age

   any period (sometimes imaginary) of great peace and prosperity and happiness

   digital age, information age

   a period beginning in the last quarter of the 20th century when information became easily accessible through publications and through the manipulation of information by computers and computer networks

   Jazz Age

   the 1920s in the United States characterized in the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald as a period of wealth, youthful exuberance, and carefree hedonism

   reign

   the period during which a monarch is sovereign

   turn of the century

   the period from about ten years before to ten years after a new century

   type of:

   period, period of time, time period

   an amount of time
2. noun

   a unit of geological time that is a subdivision of a period and is itself divided into ages
   examples:

   Holocene epoch

   the epoch of geologic time from about 11,700 years ago to the present; the second and current epoch of the Quaternary period

   Pleistocene epoch

   the epoch of geologic time from about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago; the first epoch of the Quaternary period

   Pliocene epoch

   the epoch of geologic time from about 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago; the second and final epoch of the Neogene period

   Miocene epoch

   the epoch of geologic time from about 23 to 5.3 million years ago; the first epoch of the Neogene period

   Oligocene epoch

   the epoch of geologic time from about 34 to 23 million years ago; the third and final epoch of the Paleogene period

   Eocene epoch

   the epoch of geologic time from about 56 to 34 million years ago, the second epoch of the Paleogene period

   Paleocene epoch

   the epoch of geologic time from about 66 to 56 million years ago; the first epoch of the Paleogene period

   type of:

   geologic time, geological time

   the time of the physical formation and development of the earth (especially prior to human history)
3. noun

   (astronomy) an arbitrarily fixed date that is the point in time relative to which information (as coordinates of a celestial body) is recorded
   synonyms: date of reference

   type of:

   date

   the particular day, month, or year (usually according to the Gregorian calendar) that an event occurred