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period
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English periode, from Middle French periode, from Medieval Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos, “circuit, orbit, a recurring interval of time, path around”), from περι- (peri-, “around”) + ὁδός (hodós, “way”). Displaced native Middle English tide (“interval, period, season”), from Old English tīd (“time, period, season”), as well as Middle English elde (“age, period”), from Old English ieldu (“age, period of time”).
Pronunciation
Noun
period (plural periods)
- A length of time. [from 17th c.]
- There was a period of confusion following the announcement.
- You'll be on probation for a six-month period.
- 2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian:
- Philip Miles, defending, said: "This was a single instance, there was no allegation of continuing behaviour over a long period of time."
- A length of time in history seen as a single coherent entity; an epoch, era. [from 16th c.]
- Synonym: vintage
- Food rationing continued in the post-war period.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.
- 1962, Chung-li Chang, The Income of the Chinese Gentry, Seattle: University of Washington Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 235:
- Sung Yung-hsi of Ch’u-hsiung was a government student during the Chia-ch’ing period.
- (now chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) The punctuation mark “.” (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).
- 2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 299:
- ‘You know, a period? The black spot at the end of a sentence — what do you call them over there?’
- (figurative) A decisive end to something; a stop.
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- My sufferings, physical and mental, are more than I can bear, and when such small arrangements as I have to make for your future well-being are completed it is my intention to put a period to them.
- The length of time during which the same characteristics of a periodic phenomenon recur, such as the repetition of a wave or the rotation of a planet. [from 17th c.]
- (euphemistic) Female menstruation; an episode of this. [from 18th c.]
- When she is on her period, she prefers not to go swimming.
- The set of symptoms associated with menstruation, even if not accompanied by menstruation; an episode of these symptoms.
- A section of an artist's, writer's (etc.) career distinguished by a given quality, preoccupation etc. [from 19th c.]
- This is one of the last paintings Picasso created during his Blue Period.
- Each of the divisions into which a school day is split, allocated to a given subject or activity. [from 19th c.]
- I have math class in second period.
- (sports, chiefly ice hockey) Each of the intervals, typically three, of which a game is divided. [from 19th c.]
- Gretzky scored in the last minute of the second period.
- (sports, chiefly ice hockey) One or more additional intervals to decide a tied game, an overtime period.
- They won in the first overtime period.
- (obsolete, medicine) The length of time for a disease to run its course. [15th–19th c.]
- (archaic) An end or conclusion; the final point of a process, a state, an event, etc. [from 16th c.]
- 1590, Robert Greene, “The Shepheards Tale”, in Greenes Mourning Garment, London: Thomas Newman, page 17:
- As thus all gazed on hir, so she glaunced hir lookes on all, surueying them as curiously, as they noted hir exactly, but at last she set downe her period on the face of Alexis […]
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- And if my death might make this island happy,
And prove the period of their tyranny,
I would expend it with all willingness:
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 58, column 1:
- Why now let me die, for I haue liu'd long enough : This is the period of my ambition : O this bleſſed houre.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 203:
- All comes to one period, whether man make an end of himſelfe, or whether he endure-it […].
- 1629, John Beaumont, “A Description of Love”, in Bosworth-field with a Taste of the Variety of Other Poems, London: Henry Seile, page 100:
- When Loue thus in his Center ends,
Desire and Hope, his inward friends
Are shaken off: while Doubt and Griefe,
The weakest giuers of reliefe,
Stand in his councell as the chiefe:
And now he to his period brought,
From Loue becomes some other thought.
- 1651, William Cartwright, The Ordinary, London: Humphrey Moseley, act III, scene 5, page 51:
- Set up an hour-glasse; hee’l go on untill
The last sand make his Period.
- a. 1667, Jeremy Taylor, “Advent Sunday Dooms-Day Book: Or, Christ’s Advent to Judgement”, in Ἐνιαυτος: A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays Of the Year, London: R. Norton, published 1673, page 8:
- […] and yet this is but the ἀρχή ὠδίνων, the Beginning of those evils which shall never End till eternity hath a period […]
- 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1537–1539:
- So ſpake th’ Archangel Michael, then paus’d, / As at the Worlds great period ; and our Sire / Replete with joy and wonder thus repli’d.
- (rhetoric) A complete sentence, especially one expressing a single thought or making a balanced, rhythmic whole. [from 16th c.]
- 1641, Ben Jonson, Timber:
- Periods are beautiful when they are not too long.
- 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:
- that such iron moulds as these shall have autority to knaw out the choicest periods of exquisitest books, and to commit such a treacherous fraud against the orphan remainders of worthiest men after death, the more sorrow will belong to that haples race of men, whose misfortune it is to have understanding.
- 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC:
- In declamatory periods Dr Fordyce spins out Rousseau's eloquence […]
- 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
- A very superior gentleman, Mr. Kenge. Truly eloquent indeed. Some of his periods quite majestic!
- 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
- He writhed for twenty minutes under the flowery and eulogistic periods of the president, and rose himself in the state of confused indignation which the Briton feels when he is publicly approved.
- (obsolete) A specific moment during a given process; a point, a stage. [17th–19th c.]
- 1720, Alexander Pope, translating Homer, Iliad, Book IV (note 125):
- The Death of Patroclus was the most eminent Period; and consequently the most proper Time for such Games.
- 1720, Alexander Pope, translating Homer, Iliad, Book IV (note 125):
- (chemistry) A row in the periodic table of the elements. [from 19th c.]
- Coordinate term: group
- (geology) A geochronologic unit of millions to tens of millions of years; a subdivision of an era, and subdivided into epochs.
- These fossils are from the Jurassic period.
- 2017 August 9, Mark Carnall, “Why do cephalopods produce ink? And what's ink made of, anyway?”, in The Guardian:
- Fossils are particularly well described from the Carboniferous, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and have been found in the USA, England, Russia, Lebanon and Germany. Sites such as Lyme Regis in Dorset have particularly yielded number of Jurassic “squid” ink sacs and nodules (Doguzhaeva et al. 2004).
- (genetics) A Drosophila gene, the gene product of which is involved in regulation of the circadian rhythm.
- 1988 April 1, “Antibodies to the period gene product of drosophila reveal diverse tissue distribution and rhythmic changes in the visual system”, in Neuron, volume 1, number 2, page 141:
- Polyclonal antibodies were prepared against the period gene product, which influences biological rhythms in D. melanogaster, by using small synthetic peptides from the per sequence as immunogens.
- (music) Two phrases (an antecedent and a consequent phrase).
- (mathematics) The length of an interval over which a periodic function, periodic sequence or repeating decimal repeats; often the least such length.
Synonyms
- (punctuation mark “.”): point; full stop (UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa); dot (computing, abbreviations); full-point, plain point (obsolete)
- (menstrual period): see also Thesaurus:menstruation.
- See also Thesaurus:period
Antonyms
- (antonym(s) of “length of time of recurrence of a periodic phenomenon”): frequency
Derived terms
- accounting period
- Baroque period
- Classical period
- closed period
- common practice period
- contract period
- cooling-off period
- critical period
- double period
- eigenperiod
- foreperiod
- free period
- gestation period
- glacial period
- grace period
- grand period of growth
- gyroperiod
- half-period
- Hamilton period
- honeymoon period
- hydroperiod
- incubation period
- intraperiod
- Julian period
- long-period
- medium-period
- Meiji period
- menstrual period
- menstruation period
- midperiod
- modern period
- multiperiod
- Nara period
- nonperiod
- notice period
- on one's period
- operational service period
- ovulatory period
- period diaper
- period doubling
- period drama
- periodical
- periodization
- periodize
- periodlike
- period of time
- periodogram
- periodoscope
- period pain
- period pants
- period piece
- period play
- period poverty
- period shits
- periodt
- photoperiod
- Pisano period
- probationary period
- Protoliterate period
- pseudoperiod
- pseudo-period
- pseudoperiodic
- psychological refractory period
- question period
- refractory period
- Romantic period
- rotational period
- rotation period
- scotoperiod
- semiperiod
- semi-period
- short-period
- short-period comet
- short period comet
- sidereal orbital period
- sidereal period
- sidereal rotation period
- Sothic period
- subperiod
- sunrise period
- synodic period
- thermoperiod
- time of pericentre passage
- time period
- Uruk period
- waiting period
- wash-up period
- xerothermic period
- zero period
Related terms
Translations
|
end or conclusion; final point of a process
history: period of time seen as coherent entity
|
rhetoric: complete sentence
punctation mark “.”
|
length of time during which something repeats
|
menstruation — see menstruation
section of an artist's career
division of school day
|
division of sports match
chemistry: row in the periodic table
|
geochronologic unit
|
genetics: type of gene
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Adjective
period (not comparable)
- Designating anything from a given historical era.
- a period car
- a period TV commercial
- 2025 October 15, Stephen Roberts, “Top 10: Railway retreats: St Bees, Cumbria”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 57:
- Located on the northbound platform, the detached, timber-clad waiting room (a period Furness Railway structure) has been adapted into a pet-friendly, self-catering, two-bedroom holiday home complete with sun lounge and garden for those sunny Cumbrian days.
- Evoking, or appropriate for, a particular historical period, especially through the use of elaborate costumes and scenery.
- a period piece
- 2004, Mark Singer, Somewhere in America, Houghton Mifflin, page 70:
- As the guests arrived — there were about a hundred, a majority in period attire — I began to feel out of place in my beige summer suit, white shirt, and red necktie. Then I got over it. I certainly didn't suffer from Confederate-uniform envy.
- Menstrual.
- period pains
- period blood
- period supplies
Translations
Interjection
period
- (chiefly Canada, US) That's final; that's the end of the matter (analogous to a period ending a sentence); end of story.
- I know you don't want to go to the dentist, but your teeth need to be checked, period!
- I'm the GOAT, point blank period!
Synonyms
- (that's final): full stop; that's that; end of discussion
Translations
Interjection
|
See also
- (symbol) .
- apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ )
- curly brackets or braces (US) ( { } )
- square brackets or brackets (US) ( [ ] )
- colon ( : )
- comma ( , )
- dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― )
- ellipsis ( … )
- exclamation mark ( ! )
- fraction slash ( ⁄ )
- guillemets ( « » ) ( ‹ › )
- hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ )
- interpunct ( · )
- interrobang (rare) ( ‽ )
- brackets or parentheses (US, Canada) ( ( ) )
- full stop or period (US, Canada) ( . )
- question mark ( ? )
- quotation marks (formal) ( ‘ ’ ‚ ) ( “ ” „ )
- quotation marks (informal, computing) ( " ) ( ' )
- semicolon ( ; )
- slash or stroke (UK) ( / )
- space ( ] [ )
Further reading
Period on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Period in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “period”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “period”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Verb
period (third-person singular simple present periods, present participle perioding, simple past and past participle perioded)
- (obsolete, intransitive) To come to a period; to conclude.
- 1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political:
- For you may period upon this, that where there is the most pity for others, there is the greatest misery in the party pitied.
- (obsolete, transitive, rare) To put an end to.
- (colloquial) To menstruate; to excrete menstrual blood.
Anagrams
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Polish
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin periodus, Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos).
Pronunciation
Noun
period m inan
- (literary) period (a length of time)
- Synonym: okres
- (literary) period (a period of time in history seen as a single coherent entity)
- Synonym: okres
- (literary) period (the length of time during which the same characteristics of a periodic phenomenon recur)
- Synonym: okres
- (physiology) period (female menstruation)
- Synonyms: ciota, ciotka, menstruacja, miesiączka, okres
- (rhetoric) period (full sentence)
- Synonym: okres
Declension
Declension of period
Derived terms
adjectives
- aperiodyczny
- nieperiodyczny
- periodyczny
- periodyzacyjny
adverb
- periodycznie
nouns
- periodyczność
- periodyk
- periodyzacja
verbs
- periodyzować
- speriodyzować
Further reading
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Romanian
Noun
period n (plural perioade)
- alternative form of perioadă
Declension
Serbo-Croatian
Etymology
From Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos).
Pronunciation
Noun
perìod m inan (Cyrillic spelling перѝод)
- period (of time)
Declension
References
- “period”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025
Swedish
Etymology
Derived from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos). Cognate of German Periode, French période, English period, Latin periodus.
Pronunciation
Noun
period c
- a period, a limited amount of time
- (ice hockey, floorball) period
- (basketball) quarter (one of four equal periods into which a game is divided)
Declension
Further reading
- period in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker
- period in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)
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