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eon

 
Dictionary: e·on  ae·on (ē'ŏn', ē'ən) pronunciation
 
also n.
  1. An indefinitely long period of time; an age.
  2. The longest division of geologic time, containing two or more eras.

[Late Latin aeōn, from Greek aiōn.]


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also aeon

noun

    A long time: eternity, long1, year (used in plural). Informal age (used in plural), blue moon. Idioms: forever and a day, forever and ever, month of Sundays. See time.

 

geology The largest unit of the geochronologic scale, being often thought of as a billion (109) years (and proposed by Gamow to be exactly that
[Gamow G. Nature Vol. 219, 765 (1968)]). Deriving etymologically from ‘life’, eon, in the form of the current eon (the Phanerozoic, lasting about 570 million years), encompassed the whole fossil record when it was introduced. Preceding time was lumped together as the undifferentiated lifeless ‘pre-Cambrian’ eon of 4 billion years. Now that too is seen as including life, and is divided. The next smaller unit is era.

 

Long span of geologic time. In formal usage, eons are the longest portions of geologic time (eras are the second-longest). Three eons are recognized: the Phanerozoic Eon (dating from the present back to the beginning of the Cambrian Period), the Proterozoic Eon, and the Archean Eon. Less formally, eon often refers to a span of one billion years.

For more information on eon, visit Britannica.com.

 
Translations: Aeon
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - uendeligt tidsrum, evighed

Nederlands (Dutch)
(een) eeuwigheid, eon, 1 miljard jaar

Français (French)
n. - éternité, temps infini, période incommensurable

Deutsch (German)
n. - Äon (Zeitraum, Weltalter)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αιώνας

Italiano (Italian)
era

Português (Portuguese)
n. - eternidade (f)

Русский (Russian)
эра, вечность

Español (Spanish)
n. - eón

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tidsålder, evighet

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
永世, 十亿年期, 万古

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 永世, 十億年期, 萬古

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 영구

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 測り知れない長年月, エオン

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) دهر, فتره لا نهائيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮עידן, תקופה‬


 
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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Measures and Units. A Dictionary of Weights, Measures, and Units. Copyright © Donald Fenna 2002, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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