a particular period of time marked by distinctive features, events, etc.: The treaty ushered in an epoch of peace and good will.
the beginning of a distinctive period in the history of anything: The splitting of the atom marked an epoch in scientific discovery.
a point of time distinguished by a particular event or state of affairs; a memorable date: His coming of age was an epoch in his life.
Geology. any of several divisions of a geologic period during which a geologic series is formed.Compare age (def. 12).
Astronomy.
an arbitrarily fixed instant of time or date, usually the beginning of a century or half century, used as a reference in giving the elements of a planetary orbit or the like.
the mean longitude of a planet as seen from the sun at such an instant or date.
Physics. the displacement from zero at zero time of a body undergoing simple harmonic motion.
Origin of epoch
1605–15; <New Latin epocha<Greek epochḗ pause, check, fixed time, equivalent to ep-ep- + och- (variant stem of échein to have) + -ē noun suffix
My mother was born on VE Day, her bones still untainted by the nuclear bombs that would come a few months later, ushering in a new epoch.
Dawn of the Heliocene - Issue 90: Something Green|Summer Praetorius|September 16, 2020|Nautilus
These days, his legacy can be seen in the work of artists such as Chloe Wise and Beth Salvini, who now hold the torch as some of our epoch’s most important fake food sculpturesses.
Summer Is Forever With This Corn-on-the-Cob Chair|Emma Orlow|August 28, 2020|Eater
A central feature of cosmology, as we commonly understand it, is an epoch known as inflation, thought to have taken place in the first fractions of a second after the Planck epoch, itself a mysterious regime.
Schrödinger’s Cat When Nobody Is Looking - Issue 89: The Dark Side|Daniel Sudarsky|August 26, 2020|Nautilus
During this epoch, the balloon deflates modestly, but the real work is done by a drastically shrinking horizon.
Big Bounce Simulations Challenge the Big Bang|Charlie Wood|August 4, 2020|Quanta Magazine
During the Pleistocene epoch, which ended about 11,700 years ago, Milankovitch cycles sent the planet in and out of ice ages.
How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are Different Now)|Howard Lee|July 21, 2020|Quanta Magazine
At the same time, it is the hallmark of brilliant people whatever their civilization, epoch, or area of expertise.
Insufferable Elitism of the SATs|James Poulos|March 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
As I said, Balzac wrote about an epoch that is curiously like our own.
Happy Birthday, Balzac: The Essential Novels|Ronald K. Fried|May 20, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Prague Fatale is authentic because Kerr can muffle the horror of this epoch in dramatic irony but he can also shout it out loud.
Must Read Fiction: ‘Prague Fatale,’ ‘Derby Day’ and More|Malcolm Forbes, Hillary Kelly, Mythili Rao|May 9, 2012|DAILY BEAST
First scholar and divine of his epoch, he was also the heaven-born dramatist of his century.
The Cloister and the Hearth|Charles Reade
The given time is then the epoch; but the term is often applied to the mean longitude of the body at the given time.