Other forms: epiphanies
An epiphany is a sudden flash of understanding that changes everything. Have an epiphany, a moment of epiphany, an epiphany about it.
It is stronger than a realisation and implies the world looks different afterwards. In Christianity, the Epiphany is the feast on the sixth of January marking the showing of Christ to the Magi, and Twelfth Night. James Joyce made the literary sense famous, using epiphany for a sudden moment of ordinary revelation in fiction. Note epiphanic, and that the word carries a faint air of the sacred even when it is about a spreadsheet.
1nounepiphanyA sudden flash of understanding that changes everything.
“The epiphany arrived in a car park at about four in the morning.”
synonyms: revelation
epiphany is a sudden understanding.
Also accepted in games: revelation
Greek epiphaneia means a showing forth or manifestation, from epi- plus phainein, to show — the same verb as in phenomenon and phantom. An epiphany is something appearing rather than something being worked out.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰeh₂-
Ancient Greek
ἐπιφάνεια — manifestation, striking appearance
Latin
epiphania
Old French
epyphanie
Middle English
epiphanie
English, today
epiphany
Built from
From Middle English epiphanie, from Old French epyphanie, from Latin epiphania, from Ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια (“manifestation, striking appearance”), from ἐπιφαίνω (“I appear, display”), from ἐπι- (“upon”) + φαίνω (“I shine, appear”). English Epiphany (of Christ) since the 14th century, generic use since the 17th century.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA