epochal
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or of the nature of an epoch.
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extremely important, significant, or influential.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of epochal
Explanation
Epochal describes events so important and significant they have the power to usher in a new epoch. In other words they're "epoch-making." The big bang. The moment when man learned to make fire. The day your braces were removed. These events are epochal in that they mark the dawn of a new era, or epoch, of time. Both epoch and epochal derive from the Latin epocha, which in turn derives from the Greek epekhein, which combines epi "on" with ekhein "to hold," and means to pause or take up a position. Think of epochal events as worthy of an arrow on the timeline of history.
Vocabulary lists containing epochal
This Week in Words: September 8 - 14, 2018
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This Week in Words: December 30, 2017 - January 5, 2018
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The Princess Bride
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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
"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
He doesn’t just distract – he rewrites the story in real time, making the serious seem trivial, and the trivial seem epochal.
From Salon • Jun. 12, 2025
To their colleagues, Rutherford and Lawrence would be known as “the two Ernests,” and their work would bookend an epochal quest for knowledge of the natural world.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
