1. When capitalized, 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.
5. Etymology: from Greek epiphainein, "to manifest, to display" from epi- "on, to" + phainein, "to show".