Aeons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A lengthy period of time, often used to describe vast, unmeasurable spans that extend beyond human understanding
2. A duration so extensive that it suggests permanence, frequently in contrast to human lifetimes or historical events
3. An indefinitely long timeframe, commonly implying an age or era that transcends normal chronological sequences

Etymology: Ancient Greek used "aiōn" for a lifetime, an age, or a span of vital force, and the word was also personified: in later Greek religion and Gnostic thought, Aion became a divine being presiding over time itself. The Romans borrowed the term as "aeon," and it passed into English from Latin with the sense of an immensely long period, which is why the plural "aeons" now means something close to forever. The Greek word carried the idea of life's duration, not a measured stretch of clock time. That sense of a lifetime or a generation stretched outward until it covered whole ages of the world, and the English plural is used the same way, often in phrases such as "for aeons" or "in aeons past," to mean a span so long that counting it is pointless.

Synonyms: ages, epochs, eras, millennia, centuries

Antonyms: moments, instants, seconds, ticks, fleeting