Era

How to spell era

3 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce era

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does era mean?

1. nounA long and distinct period of history, typically marked by particular events, conditions, or characteristics.

Era in a sentence

• The digital era changed how companies advertise their products.

• Historians describe the post-war era as one of rapid rebuilding.

Where does era come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Era comes from the Latin aera, which was the plural of aes, meaning 'bronze' or 'money', and which by extension came to mean a set of counters or items used in counting. From there aera shifted to mean a number that served as the fixed starting point for reckoning dates, much as we might count years from a chosen origin. Late Latin writers used it specifically for a system of dating, and the word passed into English in the seventeenth century with the broad sense of a distinct period of history marked off by some notable feature. The journey from 'pieces of bronze used as tokens' to 'a great stretch of time' is a striking one, but the common thread is the idea of a fixed point from which counting begins. The short, vowel-heavy spelling preserves the Latin form almost untouched.

How the word is built

• era (a single, indivisible root from Latin aera, 'a number used as a basis of reckoning')