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epochal

American  
[ep-uh-kuhl, ee-po-] / ˈɛp ə kəl, ˈi pɒ- /

adjective

  1. of, relating to, or of the nature of an epoch.

  2. extremely important, significant, or influential.


Other Word Forms

  • epochally adverb
  • nonepochal adjective
  • preepochal adjective
  • unepochal adjective

Etymology

Origin of epochal

First recorded in 1675–85; epoch + -al 1

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.

These rankings help focus on the fact that what we’re experiencing now is generationally, almost on an epochal level, different.

From Slate • Mar. 30, 2026

Going much further back, oil prices also rocketed during the epochal crisis of World War II in the 1940s.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 20, 2026

In the immediate aftermath of that epochal event, McCartney retreated to a 183-acre sheep farm on the Kintyre Peninsula in Argyllshire, Scotland, with his wife Linda and their young family.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 30, 2025

"It feels like an epochal moment, and it also feels extraordinarily terrifying."

From BBC • Sep. 1, 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