eon

See also: Appendix:Variations of "eon"

English

WOTD – 21 January 2006

Alternative forms

  • aeon (chiefly British or Gnostic)
  • æon (dated, chiefly British or Gnostic)

Etymology

From Latin aeon, from Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, age, era).

Pronunciation

  • (US, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈi.ɑn/, /ˈeɪ.ɑn/
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈiː.ən/, /ˈiː.ɒn/, /ˈeɪ.ɒn/
  • (General Australian)
  • Rhymes: -iːɒn, (UK) -iːən

Noun

eon (plural eons)

  1. Eternity, the duration of the universe.
  2. An immeasurably or indefinitely long period of time.
  3. (US, informal, hyperbolic) A long period of time.
    It’s been eons since we last saw each other.
    • 1990, Judith Martin, Miss Manners’ Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium (A Fireside Book), New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 453:
      Traditionally, a luncheon is a lunch that takes an eon.
  4. (astronomy, geology) A period of one billion (short scale, i.e. 1,000,000,000) years.
    • 2012 January, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist[1], volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 November 2012, page 23:
      We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.
  5. (geology) The longest geochronologic unit, being a period of hundreds of millions of years; subdivided into eras.
  6. (Gnosticism, usually spelled aeon or æon) A spirit being emanating from the Godhead.

Derived terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ey- (1 c, 1 e)

Translations

Anagrams

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin aeon, from Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, age).

Pronunciation

  • Audio:(file)

Noun

eon m or n (plural eonen, diminutive eoontje n or eonnetje n)

  1. eon; eternity
  2. (geology) eon, aeon
  3. (informal, hyperbolically) eon
  4. a period of 1,000,000,000 years
  5. (Gnosticism) eon

Anagrams

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin aeon, from Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, age).

Noun

eon n (definite singular eonet, indefinite plural eon or eoner, definite plural eona or eonene)

  1. eon; eternity
  2. (geology) eon, aeon
  3. (informal, hyperbolically) eon
  4. A period of 1,000,000,000 years.
  5. (Gnosticism) eon

References

  • eon” in The Ordnett Dictionary

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin aeon, from Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, age).

Noun

eon n (definite singular eonet, indefinite plural eon, definite plural eona)

  1. eon; eternity
  2. (geology) eon, aeon
  3. (informal, hyperbolically) eon
  4. A period of 1,000,000,000 years.
  5. (Gnosticism) eon

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin aeōn.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɛ.ɔn/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛɔn
  • Syllabification: e‧on

Noun

eon m inan

  1. eon (immeasurably or indefinitely long period of time)
    Synonyms: era, wiek
  2. (geology) eon (longest geochronologic unit, being a period of hundreds of millions of years; subdivided into eras)

Declension

Noun

eon m animal

  1. (Gnosticism) aeon (spirit being emanating from the Godhead)

Declension

Further reading

  • eon in Polish dictionaries at PWN
  • eon in PWN's encyclopedia

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French éon.

Noun

eon m (plural eoni)

  1. eon

Declension

Declension of eon
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative eon eonul eoni eonii
genitive-dative eon eonului eoni eonilor
vocative eonule eonilor

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ěoːn/
  • Hyphenation: e‧on

Noun

èōn m inan (Cyrillic spelling ѐо̄н)

  1. eon

Declension

Declension of eon
singular plural
nominative èōn eoni
genitive eóna eona
dative eonu eonima
accusative eon eone
vocative eone eoni
locative eonu eonima
instrumental eonom eonima

Further reading

  • eon”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Swedish

Noun

eon c

  1. eon; eternity
  2. (geology) eon

Declension

References

Anagrams