ep|och

ep|och «EHP uhk; especially British EE pok», noun,

1. a period of time; era: »

an epoch of extravagance, an epoch of strange manifestations. There were few peaceful epochs in the history of our country.

SYNONYM(S): age.

2. a period of time in which striking things happened: »

The years of the Civil War were an epoch in the history of the United States.

3. the starting point of such a period: »

The invention of the steam engine marked an epoch in the growth of industry.

4. one of the divisions of time into which a geological period is divided: »

the Recent epoch of the Quaternary period.

5. Astronomy. a) an arbitrarily fixed instant of time or date (usually the beginning of a century or half-century) used as a reference point in giving the elements of a planetary orbit or the like. b) the longitude of a planet seen from the sun at such an instant or date.

╂[< Latin epochē < Greek epoch a stopping, fixed point in time < epé- chein to stop < epi- on, upon + échein to hold]