What does epoch mean?
Word: Epoch
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Epoch means a long period of history marked by important events or changes.
How do you spell epoch?
Syllables: ep - och
Tricky part: The k sound at the close is spelt ch, the way it is in school and echo.
Watch out for: epok, epock, epoc
Memory tip: History is taught at school, and school gives you the ch that says k.
Epoch in a sentence
Example 1: The Mughal epoch left India some of its finest buildings.
Example 2: Geologists divide the Earth's past into units, and one of them is the epoch.
Example 3: The internet marked a new epoch in how people share ideas.
Fun Fact
Geologists use this word exactly: the time we live in is the Holocene epoch, which began about 11,700 years ago, at the close of the last ice age.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word epoch as used in the sentence:
The moon landing of 1969 began a new epoch in space travel.
a) era
b) instant
c) outline
d) custom
Show answer
a) era. An era is a long stretch of time, which is what the sentence is talking about.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the word in the sentence and choose it:
Historians call that pehoc of steam engines and factories a turning point for Britain.
a) epoch
b) ethic
c) exit
d) epic
Show answer
a) epoch. An o, a p and an h are all needed, and just one option has them.
Word Cookie
Insert the correct pair of letters to form a word:
_p_ch
a) e,a
b) e,o
c) i,o
d) a,o
Show answer
b) e,o. An e leads the word, and o is the vowel in its closing part.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the meaning of the only correctly spelt word in the list.
1. archipelego 2. camoflage 3. epoch 4. liesure
a) an age in the story of the world
b) colouring that hides an animal
c) free time for enjoying yourself
d) a group of islands
Show answer
a) an age in the story of the world. Camouflage needs a u after the o, leisure has ei, and archipelago has an a before the g.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which span of time could fairly be called an epoch?
a) a lunch break on a Monday
b) a week of school holidays
c) the age of the great Gupta kings
d) the hour before a cricket match
Show answer
c) the age of the great Gupta kings
2. A historian says a discovery was epoch-making. She means that it ____.
a) was forgotten within a year
b) took a long time to finish
c) changed the course of history
d) happened by a lucky accident
Show answer
c) changed the course of history
