epochal
Americanadjective
-
of, relating to, or of the nature of an epoch.
-
extremely important, significant, or influential.
Other Word Forms
- epochally adverb
- nonepochal adjective
- preepochal adjective
- unepochal adjective
Etymology
Origin of epochal
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Going much further back, oil prices also rocketed during the epochal crisis of World War II in the 1940s.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 20, 2026
Illustrations from the era show Malinche, serving as translator, as a prominent figure during Cortés’ epochal meeting with Moctezuma on Nov. 8, 1519, on a causeway leading to Tenochtitlán.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 25, 2026
"It feels like an epochal moment, and it also feels extraordinarily terrifying."
From BBC • Sep. 1, 2025
The scientists of the Manhattan Project, who helped build the bomb and then witnessed Trinity’s fireball, recognized—felt—its epochal shudder.
From Slate • Jul. 17, 2025
The epochal confrontation between the two views of the Cosmos—Earth-centered and Sun-centered—reached a climax in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the person of a man who was, like Ptolemy, both astrologer and astronomer.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
