Epoch

Quick meaning: Epoch is a noun meaning A particular period of history, or of a person's life, especially one considered noteworthy or remarkable.

Meaning

A particular period of history, or of a person's life, especially one considered noteworthy or remarkable.

More Meanings

1. A notable event which marks the beginning of such a period.
2. (machine learning) One complete presentation of the training data set to an iterative machine learning algorithm.
3. (sciences, transitive) To divide (data) into segments by time period.
4. (chronology, astronomy, computing) A specific instant in time, chosen as the point of reference or zero value of a system that involves identifying instants of time.
5. (geology) A geochronologic unit of hundreds of thousands to millions of years; a subdivision of a period, and subdivided into ages (or sometimes subepochs).

Example Sentences

UNIX epoch; J2000 epoch

The .NET epoch is midnight at the start of January 1st, AD 1, although that's AD 1 in a proleptic Gregorian calendar, which refers to even more complexity we haven't talked about yet.

And it occasionally happens that a period in which one had, hitherto, been mainly looking for the coming to birth of new things, suddenly reveals itself as an epoch of fading and decay.

Appendix A gives formulae for the calculation of the orbital elements of the planets at any time referred to the mean ecliptic and equinox of the epoch of noon on 1st January 2000; this is called the J2000 epoch.

Word Forms

• epochs
• epocha
• epoching
• epoched

Synonyms for epoch

Depending on context, synonyms include age, era, generation.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include era, period, lot, age, season, time.

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