epoch
/ˈiːpɒk/noun, verb
epoch is spelled E-P-O-C-H: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “epic vs epoch” about 260 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, epoch means “A particular period of history, or of a person's life, especially one considered noteworthy or remarkable” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of epoch is epochs.
How many letters and syllables are in epoch?
| Letters | 5: E-P-O-C-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words; the 22,651st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is epoch?
Epoch appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce epoch?
- UK /ˈiːpɒk/
- UK /ˈɛpɒk/
- UK /ˈɛpək/
Epoch has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-epoch.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-epoch2.wav, En-us-epoch.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with epoch
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with epoch?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as epoch (/ipɒk/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: chope.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of epoch
- epochs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- epocha
- epoching participle, present
- epoched participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does epoch mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A particular period of history, or of a person's life, especially one considered noteworthy or remarkable.
- 2
A notable event which marks the beginning of such a period.
- 3
A specific instant in time, chosen as the point of reference or zero value of a system that involves identifying instants of time.
UNIX epoch; J2000 epoch
- 4
A geochronologic unit of hundreds of thousands to millions of years; a subdivision of a period, and subdivided into ages (or sometimes subepochs).
- 5
One complete presentation of the training data set to an iterative machine learning algorithm.
The neural network was trained over 500 epochs.
verb
- 1
To divide (data) into segments by time period.
noun
- 1
An intensive chemotherapy regimen for treating aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma, consisting of etoposide, prednisolone, Oncovin (vincristine), cyclophosphamide, and hydroxydaunorubicin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Epoch in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | époque, ère, période , singularité, évènement |
| German | Epoche, Ära |
| Portuguese | época, era |
| Spanish | época, evo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does epoch come from?
From Medieval Latin epocha, from Ancient Greek ἐποχή (epokhḗ, “a check, cessation, stop, pause, epoch of a star, i.e., the point at which it seems to halt after reaching the highest, and generally the place of a star; hence, a historical epoch”), from ἐπέχω (epékhō, “to hold in, check”), from ἐπι- (epi-, “upon”) + ἔχω (ékhō, “to have, hold”). Doublet of epoche.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).