- period
- period, epoch, era, age, aeon all denote a portion or division of time; epoch and era can also denote an event regarded as the beginning of a portion or division of time.Period is the generic term, designating an extent of time of any length for whatever purpose delimited{
request a one-minute period of silence as a tribute to a dead person
}{it began in 1915 in one of the darkest periods of the first world war— Pollock
}{was returned for eight successive Congresses—a period of seventeen years— W. C. Ford
}Epoch can denote the starting point of a new period, especially as marked by striking or remarkable changes or events{this is an epoch . . . the end and the beginning of an age— H. G. Wells
}or it may apply to such a new period{a phenomenon of our own special epoch, a man who couldn't... be a writer in the only meaning of the term, but who can and probably will write a book— Purdy
}{Dante's work . . . initiated a new epoch in literature— R. A. Hall
}Era applies to a period characterized especially by some new order of things{a better intellectual era is dawning for the working men— Kingsley
}{the Victorian era
}{an era of singular crisis and upheaval— A Idridge
}Age, usually interchangeable with but possibly more specific than era, is frequently used of a period dominated by some central figure or clearly marked feature{the age of Pericles
}{the Bronze Age
}{the French Revolution and its age— Arnold
}Aeon applies to an immeasurably or indefinitely long period of time{aeons of primeval power have shaped that pillared bulk— Gibson
}{during the three terrible hours ... he had lived centuries of pain, aeon upon aeon of torture— Wilde
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
