eon
See also: Appendix:Variations of "eon"
English
WOTD – 21 January 2006
Alternative forms
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/
- Homophone: Ian
- (General Australian)
Audio (General Australian): (file)
- Rhymes: -iːɒn, (UK) -iːən
Noun
eon (plural eons)
- Eternity, the duration of the universe.
- An immeasurably or indefinitely long period of time.
- (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.
- (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.
- (geology) The longest geochronologic unit, being a period of hundreds of millions of years; subdivided into eras.
- (Gnosticism, usually spelled aeon or æon) A spirit being emanating from the Godhead.
Derived terms
Related terms
English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ey- (1 c, 1 e)
Translations
eternity
|
period of 1,000,000,000 years
geochronologic unit
|
informal, hyperbolic: a long period of time
|
a being emanating from the Godhead
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)
- eon; eternity
- (geology) eon, aeon
- (informal, hyperbolically) eon
- a period of 1,000,000,000 years
- (Gnosticism) eon
Related terms
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)
- eon; eternity
- (geology) eon, aeon
- (informal, hyperbolically) eon
- A period of 1,000,000,000 years.
- (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)
- eon; eternity
- (geology) eon, aeon
- (informal, hyperbolically) eon
- A period of 1,000,000,000 years.
- (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
- eon (immeasurably or indefinitely long period of time)
- (geology) eon (longest geochronologic unit, being a period of hundreds of millions of years; subdivided into eras)
Declension
Declension of eon
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | eon | eony |
genitive | eonu | eonów |
dative | eonowi | eonom |
accusative | eon | eony |
instrumental | eonem | eonami |
locative | eonie | eonach |
vocative | eonie | eony |
Noun
eon m animal
- (Gnosticism) aeon (spirit being emanating from the Godhead)
Declension
Declension of eon
Further reading
Romanian
Etymology
Noun
eon m (plural eoni)
Declension
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)
Declension
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
Declension
nominative | genitive | ||
---|---|---|---|
singular | indefinite | eon | eons |
definite | eonen | eonens | |
plural | indefinite | eoner | eoners |
definite | eonerna | eonernas |
References
- eon in Svensk ordbok (SO)
- eon in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
- eon in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)