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I read a lot of fantasy, so my opinion stems from that. To me epic means large in scope or scale. That means you don't know where the story will go from the 1st book, ie the plot is complex. There is a huge cast of characters. The world is huge and more importantly diverse. Magic is very much present in this world.
When I think of epic fantasy I immediately think of Malazan Book of the Fallen for example. Multiple plot threads that will converge into one. You can't tell what's up from the first book. Huge cast of characters. The world is big and old. Very old. Abundance of magic. All of this in 3M 325k words, and this is just basic core series.
Individual book word count
Gardens of the Moon: 209k
Deadhouse Gates: 272k
Memories of Ice: 358k
House of Chains: 306k
Midnight Tides: 270k
The Bonehunters: 365k
Reaper’s Gale: 386k
Toll the Hounds: 392k
Dust of Dreams: 382k
The Crippled God: 385k
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