epiphany
/ɪˈpɪfəni/
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.16 in modern English
Meaning
noun
An illuminating realization or discovery, often resulting in a personal feeling of elation, awe, or wonder.
Countable
noun
A manifestation of the divinity of Jesus Christ, especially to the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12), but also at his baptism and the Wedding at Cana.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
An annual Christian feast celebrating these events, usually on January 6, the twelfth day after Christmas.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The day of the celebration, January 6, or sometimes (in Western Christianity), the Sunday between January 2 and 8.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The season or time of the Christian church year, either from the Epiphany feast day to Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent), or from the Epiphany feast day to the feast of Candlemas (marking the presentation of Jesus Christ in the Temple in Jerusalem).
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "It came to her in an epiphany what her life's work was to be."
- "Instead of examining institutions and classes, structures of economic production and social control, one had to think about “moments”—moments of love, hate, poetry, frustration, action, surrender, delight, humiliation, justice, cruelty, resignation, surprise, disgust, resentment, self-loathing, pity, fury, peace of mind—those tiny epiphanies, Lefebvre said, in which the absolute possibilities and temporal limits of anyone's existence were revealed."
- "But after spending most of my pocket money to get those developed, I had an epiphany: I was never going to be a professional photographer. My pictures were god-awful. I put the camera away."
- "Between the gaps, I was swimming laps / Got close to some epiphany / I'll convince a friend to join deep ends / Have your toes touch the lack of cement"
- "The logic of the standard biography—a formative event leads to an epiphany that creates the great man—doesn’t quite work when the greatness doesn’t have much to do with the man at all."
- "The ithyphallic bird-man is the climactic, ecstatic, instantaneous male principle confronting the enormous, slow, bovine, and enduring principle of the eternal feminine in her epiphany as the bison."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɪˈpɪfəni/
- British English: /ɪˈpɪfəni/