- (formal or literary)
a period of time in history, especially one during which important events or changes happen 时代；纪元；时期 Extra ExamplesTopics Timec2, Historyc2Welfare reform was an epoch in the history of US social policy. 福利改革开辟了美国社会政策史上的一个新时代。 an epoch of great social change 社会大变革的时代 the importance of the computer in the present epoch 计算机在当代的重要性
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- new
- modern
- present
- …
- mark
- during an/the epoch
- in an/the epoch
- epoch of
- …
- the beginning of an epoch
- the end of an epoch
- (
geology 地质学 a length of time that is a division of a period 世（地质年代，纪下分世） geological epochs 地质世
Word Originearly 17th cent. (in the Latin form epocha; originally in the general sense of ‘a date from which succeeding years are numbered’): from modern Latin epocha, from Greek epokhē ‘stoppage, fixed point of time’, from epekhein ‘stop, take up a position’, from epi ‘upon, near to’ + ekhein ‘stay, be in a certain state’.