silver age

American  

[sil-ver eyj] / ˈsɪl vər ˈeɪdʒ /

noun

1. Classical Mythology. the second of the four ages of humankind, inferior to the golden age but superior to the bronze age that followed: characterized by an increase of impiety and of human weakness.

2. (usually initial capital letters) a period in Latin literature, a.d. c14–138, following the Augustan Age: the second phase of Classical Latin.

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silver age British  

noun

1. (in Greek and Roman mythology) the second of the world's major epochs, inferior to the preceding golden age and characterized by opulence and irreligion

2. the postclassical period of Latin literature, occupying the early part of the Roman imperial era, characterized by an overindulgence in elegance for its own sake and empty scholarly rhetoric

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Etymology

Origin of silver age

First recorded in 1555–65

Example Sentences

In his downtown office, a framed silver age comic book sits by his desk, chronicling the adventures of “Mr. District Attorney.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 9, 2025

We live in a silver age, aesthetically as well as demographically.

From The Guardian • Mar. 31, 2019

And why has it taken Hollywood generally so long to embrace the cosmic nuttiness of the sci-fi and magic-obsessed comic book silver age?

From The Guardian • May 3, 2017

The movie was chock full of the kind of nutty cosmic content that made the silver age so popular, from giant blue frost giants to mystical artefacts and magical interplanetary pathways.

From The Guardian • May 3, 2017

Gorgias may or may not have learned his style from the ancient poets of Greece, but the poets of the silver age learned from the tribe of Gorgias.

From Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance A Study of Rhetorical Terms in English Renaissance Literary Criticism by Clark, Donald Lemen