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Webster 1913 Edition
Epoch
Ep′och
(ĕp′ŏk or ē′pŏk; 277)
, Noun.
[LL.
epocha
, Gr. ἐποχή
check, stop, an epoch of a star, an historical epoch, fr. ἐπέχειν
to hold on, check; ἐπί
upon + ἔχειν
to have, hold; akin to Skr. sah
to overpower, Goth. sigis
victory, AS. sigor
, sige
, G. sieg
: cf. F. époque
. See Scheme
.] 1.
A fixed point of time, established in history by the occurrence of some grand or remarkable event; a point of time marked by an event of great subsequent influence;
as, the
epoch
of the creation; the birth of Christ was the epoch
which gave rise to the Christian era.In divers ages, . . . divers
epochs
of time were used. Usher.
Great
epochs
and crises in the kingdom of God. Trench.
The acquittal of the bishops was not the only event which makes the 30th of June, 1688, a great
epoch
in history. Macaulay.
☞ Epochs mark the beginning of new historical periods, and dates are often numbered from them.
2.
A period of time, longer or shorter, remarkable for events of great subsequent influence; a memorable period;
“So vast an epoch of time.” as, the
. epoch
of maritime discovery, or of the ReformationF. Harrison.
The influence of Chaucer continued to live even during the dreary interval which separates from one another two important
epochs
of our literary history. A. W. Ward.
3.
(Geol.)
A division of time characterized by the prevalence of similar conditions of the earth; commonly a minor division or part of a period.
The long geological
epoch
which stored up the vast coal measures. J. C. Shairp.
Syn. – Era; time; date; period; age.
–
Epoch
, Era
. We speak of the era of the Reformation, when we think of it as a period, during which a new order of things prevailed; so also, the era of good feeling, etc. Had we been thinking of the time as marked by certain great events, or as a period in which great results were effected, we should have called the times when these events happened epochs, and the whole period an epoch. The capture of Constantinople is an
epoch
in the history of Mahometanism; but the flight of Mahomet is its era
. C. J. Smith.
Webster 1828 Edition
Epoch
E'POCH
,Noun.
1.
In chronology, a fixed point of time, from which succeeding years are numbered; a point from which computation of years begins. The Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and the Babylonish captivity, are remarkable epochs in their history.2.
Any fixed time or period; the period when any thing begins or is remarkably prevalent; as the epoch of falsehood; the epoch of woe.The fifteenth century was the unhappy epoch of military establishments in time of peace.
Definition 2024
epoch
epoch
English
Noun
epoch (plural epochs)
- A particular period of history, especially one considered remarkable or noteworthy.
- 2012 January 1, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 70:
- Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.
-
- A notable event which marks the beginning of such a period.
- (astronomy) A precise instant of time that is used as a reference point.
- (computing, uncountable) A precise instant of time that is used as a reference point (e.g. January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC).
- (computing) One complete presentation of the training data set to an iterative machine learning algorithm.
- The neural network was trained over 500 epochs.
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
particular period of history
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notable event
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Verb
epoch (third-person singular simple present epochs, present participle epoching, simple past and past participle epoched)
- (sciences, transitive) To divide (data) into segments by time period.
- 2015 July 6, “Stronger Neural Modulation by Visual Motion Intensity in Autism Spectrum Disorders”, in PLOS ONE, DOI::
- The continuous data were epoched into segments of 1500 ms (starting 500 ms before visual stimulus onset), time-locked to stimulus onset (0 ms) and sorted according to experimental conditions.
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