Epoch

How to spell epoch

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce epoch

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does epoch mean?

1. nounA distinct and notable period of time in history or in someone's life, often marked by particular events or developments.

Epoch in a sentence

• The invention of the printing press began a new epoch in the spread of knowledge.

• Historians regard the fall of the wall as the close of one epoch and the start of another.

Where does epoch come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek epoche, which literally meant a stoppage, a pause, or a fixed point in time. It was built from the verb epechein, 'to hold back' or 'to pause', itself a compound of epi 'upon' and echein 'to hold'. Ancient astronomers used the term for a precise moment from which a sequence of celestial positions could be reckoned, so the idea of 'a fixed point from which time is counted' was there from the start. English borrowed it in the early 1600s, taking it through the Latin form epocha, and the meaning broadened from that exact reckoning point to a whole stretch of distinctive history. The silent, almost swallowed second vowel and the final hard -ch (pronounced like a k) are the spelling traps, both of which trace straight back to the Greek echein, 'to hold'.

How the word is built

• ep- (from Greek epi: upon)
• -och (from echein: to hold, stop) = a fixed point at which time is held or reckoned