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View synonyms for epiphany

epiphany

[ ih-pif-uh-nee ]

noun

, plural e·piph·a·nies.
  1. (initial capital letter) a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi; Twelfth-day.
  2. an appearance or manifestation, especially of a deity.
  3. a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
  4. a literary work or section of a work presenting, usually symbolically, such a moment of revelation and insight.


Epiphany

1

/ ɪˈpɪfənɪ /

noun

  1. a Christian festival held on Jan 6, commemorating, in the Western Church, the manifestation of Christ to the Magi and, in the Eastern Church, the baptism of Christ


epiphany

2

/ ɪˈpɪfənɪ; ˌɛpɪˈfænɪk /

noun

  1. the manifestation of a supernatural or divine reality
  2. any moment of great or sudden revelation

Epiphany

  1. A festival in Christianity celebrating the visit of the Wise Men to the infant Jesus . Epiphany means “a showing forth” — in this case a showing forth of Jesus to the Gentiles .


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Derived Forms

  • epiphanic, adjective

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Other Words From

  • ep·i·phan·ic [ep-, uh, -, fan, -ik], e·pipha·nous adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of epiphany1

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English epiphanie, from Late Latin epiphanīa, from Late Greek epipháneia, from Greek: “apparition,” equivalent to epi- epi- ( def ) + phan- (stem of phaínein “to appear”) + -eia -y 3( def )

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Word History and Origins

Origin of epiphany1

C17: via Church Latin from Greek epiphaneia an appearing, from epi- + phainein to show

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Example Sentences

Richard Kurin was a 19-year-old anthropology student in India when he experienced his material culture epiphany.

Zaks experienced an epiphany of sorts a couple years ago, when he was looking through a book of Tony Walton illustrations.

While watching The Ten Commandments on TV with their children for the umpteenth time, Burnett and Downey had an epiphany.

This was an epiphany, this was imprinted on you, you could do anything now.

The teenager went to rehab, and then went right back to using—until he had an epiphany.

Their escape was made at midnight on the eve of Epiphany, 1649, all the court following in great disorder.

Neophytes should therefore be baptized at Easter and Pentecost alone, never at Epiphany.

So careful is the poet to prepare both sides—the divine epiphany, and the mortal who is to behold it.

He thought the lessons of the Nativity and Epiphany came as a very wholesome corrective to these tendencies.

There is nothing of him now in Florence, save a few drawings in the Uffizi and an unfinished picture of the Epiphany.

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epiphanizeepiphenomenalism