period definition

English period definition

Alternative forms

• per. (abbreviation)

Etymology

From Middle English periode, from Middle French periode, from Medieval Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos, “circuit, an interval of time, path around”), from περί- (perí-, “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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪə.ɹi.əd/, /ˈpɪə.ɹɪ.əd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪɚ.i.əd/, /ˈpɪɹ.i.əd/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ɹɪd/

Noun

period (plural periods)

2. 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."

4. A length of time in history seen as a single coherent entity; an epoch, era. [from 16th c.]

   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.

6. (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?’

8. (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.

10. 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.]
12. (euphemistic) Female menstruation; an episode of this. [from 18th c.]

    When she is on her period, she prefers not to go swimming.

    2. The set of symptoms associated with menstruation, even if not accompanied by menstruation; an episode of these symptoms.
14. 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.

16. 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.

18. (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.

20. (sports, chiefly ice hockey) One or more additional intervals to decide a tied game, an overtime period.

    They won in the first overtime period.

22. (obsolete, medicine) The length of time for a disease to run its course. [15th–19th c.]
24. An end or conclusion; the final point of a process etc. [from 16th c.]
    • 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 […].

    • 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], […], →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.

26. (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, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], 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.

28. (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.

30. (chemistry) A row in the periodic table of the elements. [from 19th c.]
32. (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.

34. (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.

    • 2009 November 20, “Gene Dmel\per”, in FlyBase‎^[1] (Gene Report (database record)), The FlyBase Consortium, retrieved 7 December 2009:

      Symbol: Dmel\per / Species: D. melanogaster / Name: period

36. (music) Two phrases (an antecedent and a consequent phrase).
38. (mathematics) The length of an interval over which a periodic function, periodic sequence or repeating decimal repeats; often the least such length.
40. (archaic) End point, conclusion.
    • 1590, Robert Greene, “The Shepheards Tale”, in Greenes Mourning Garment‎^[2], 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:

    • 1629, John Beaumont, “A Description of Love”, in Bosworth-field with a Taste of the Variety of Other Poems‎^[3], 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^[4], 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.

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

• (length of time of recurrence of a periodic phenomenon): frequency

Derived terms

Related terms

• periodic

Translations

Adjective

period (not comparable)

1. Designating anything from a given historical era. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   a period car

   a period TV commercial

2. Evoking, or appropriate for, a particular historical period, especially through the use of elaborate costumes and scenery.
   • 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.

Interjection

period

1. (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!

Synonyms

• (that's final): full stop; that's that; end of discussion

Translations

See also

• (symbol) .

Punctuation

Further reading

• Period on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Period in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• “period”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “period”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Verb

period (third-person singular simple present periods, present participle perioding, simple past and past participle perioded)

1. (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.

2. (obsolete, transitive, rare) To put an end to.

Anagrams

• -poride, dopier, dorpie

Polish period definition

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin periodus, Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛ.rjɔt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛrjɔt
• Syllabification: pe‧riod

Noun

period m inan

1. (literary) period (a length of time)

   Synonym: okres

2. (literary) period (a period of time in history seen as a single coherent entity)

   Synonym: okres

3. (literary) period (the length of time during which the same characteristics of a periodic phenomenon recur)

   Synonym: okres

4. (physiology) period (female menstruation)

   Synonyms: ciota, ciotka, menstruacja, miesiączka, okres

5. (rhetoric) period (full sentence)

   Synonym: okres

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

• period in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• period in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian period definition

Noun

period n (plural perioade)

1. Alternative form of perioadă

Declension

Serbo-Croatian period definition

Etymology

From Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /perǐod/
• Hyphenation: pe‧ri‧od

Noun

perìod m (Cyrillic spelling перѝод)

1. period (of time)

Declension

References

• “period” in Hrvatski jezični portal

Swedish period definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛrːjuːd/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːd

Noun

period c

1. a period, a limited amount of time
2. (ice hockey, floorball) period

Declension

Declension of period
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	period	perioden	perioder	perioderna
Genitive	periods	periodens	perioders	periodernas