Today's Word

Epoch

EP-uhk or EE-pok

Definition

(noun) A significant period in history or a person’s life; an era marked by notable events or changes.

Example

The invention of the internet ushered in a new epoch in human communication.

Word Origin

From Greek epokhē, meaning “a fixed point in time” or “pause.”

Fun Fact

The word epoch has a timeless feel because it often describes moments that reshape everything—scientifically, culturally, or personally. In geology, an epoch marks a major division of Earth’s timeline, like the Holocene we live in today. In everyday speech, it might refer to turning points in our own lives: the start of a career, a new relationship, or a global shift in how we live. Every epoch reminds us that history—big or small—moves in waves.

Previous Words

Abate

Today's Word

Abate

uh-BAYT

Definition

(verb) To reduce in intensity, force, or amount; to become less severe or widespread.

Example

The protests didn’t end so much as abate — the crowds thinning gradually over three weeks until one morning the square was simply empty again.

Word Origin

Abate derives from the Old French abatre, meaning “to beat down” — built from a- (“to”) and batre (“to beat”), itself from the Latin battuere, meaning “to beat” or “to strike.” The same root gives us batter, battle, and combat — all words built around striking. The sense in abate is of something being beaten back, reduced, pushed down from its peak — not eliminated but diminished to something more manageable.

Fun Fact

In English law, abatement has a precise and ancient legal meaning — the right to remove a nuisance that affects one’s property or public space. The doctrine of abatement of nuisance dates to medieval common law and gives individuals and authorities the right to reduce or eliminate conditions that cause harm, from flooding to noise to unsafe structures. The legal phrase “abate a nuisance” has been used continuously in English courts for over six centuries — making abate one of the few words whose legal and everyday meanings have remained almost perfectly aligned across that entire period.

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Epoch

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Previous Words

Abate

Abate

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Abate

Pugnacious

Vociferous

Dilatory

Resplendent