epiphany

noun

1. (countable)An illuminating realization or discovery, often resulting in a personal feeling of elation, awe, or wonder.

   “It came to her in an epiphany what her life's work was to be.”

   “Instead of examining institutions and classes, structures of economic production and social control, one had to think about “moments”—moments of love, hate, poetry, frustration, action, surrender, delight, humiliation, justice, cruelty, resignation, surprise, disgust, resentment, self-loathing, pity, fury, peace of mind—those tiny epiphanies, Lefebvre said, in which the absolute possibilities and temporal limits of anyone's existence were revealed.”

   “But after spending most of my pocket money to get those developed, I had an epiphany: I was never going to be a professional photographer. My pictures were god-awful. I put the camera away.”

   “Between the gaps, I was swimming laps / Got close to some epiphany / I'll convince a friend to join deep ends / Have your toes touch the lack of cement”

   “The logic of the standard biography—a formative event leads to an epiphany that creates the great man—doesn’t quite work when the greatness doesn’t have much to do with the man at all.”

2. (countable)A manifestation or appearance of a divine or superhuman being.

   “The ithyphallic bird-man is the climactic, ecstatic, instantaneous male principle confronting the enormous, slow, bovine, and enduring principle of the eternal feminine in her epiphany as the bison.”

3. (alt-of, countable, uncountable)Alternative letter-case form of Epiphany.
4. (countable, uncountable)A manifestation of the divinity of Jesus Christ, especially to the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12), but also at his baptism and the Wedding at Cana.

   “That was also the reason why the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the three epiphanies of Christ's divinity, His Baptism, the Miracle of Cana, and the Visit of the Magi, was one of the most favorite feasts in the Eastern Church[…]”

5. (countable, uncountable)An annual Christian feast celebrating these events, usually on January 6, the twelfth day after Christmas.

   “On the Festival of the Epiphany, and on the six Sundays called after its name, we have distinct pictures held up to our view connected with the life of Jesus of Nazareth[…]”

   “That was also the reason why the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the three epiphanies of Christ's divinity, His Baptism, the Miracle of Cana, and the Visit of the Magi, was one of the most favorite feasts in the Eastern Church[…]”

   “The Epiphany, also known as the Feast of the Three Kings, Feast of Lights and Little Christmas, is known to have been observed earlier than 194 A.D.[…]”

6. (countable, uncountable)The day of the celebration, January 6, or sometimes (in Western Christianity), the Sunday between January 2 and 8.
7. (countable, uncountable)The season or time of the Christian church year, either from the Epiphany feast day to Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent), or from the Epiphany feast day to the feast of Candlemas (marking the presentation of Jesus Christ in the Temple in Jerusalem).
8. (countable, uncountable)an experience of sudden and striking insight

name

1. A female given name.