eon

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, “age”).

noun

  1. (US) Eternity.
  2. A period of 1,000,000,000 years.
    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. 2012-01, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 2012-11-14, page 23
  3. (geology) The longest geochronologic unit, being a period of hundreds of millions of years; subdivided into eras.
  4. (US, informal, hyperbolic) A long period of time.
    It's been eons since we last saw each other.
  5. (Gnosticism, usually spelled aeon or æon) A spirit being emanating from the Godhead.

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