Definitions for: Period


[n] a punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations; "in England they call a period a stop"
[n] the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause; "the women were sickly and subject to excessive menstruation"; "a woman does not take the gout unless her menses be stopped"--Hippocrates; "the semen begins to appear in males and to be emitted at the same time of life that the catamenia begin to flow in females"--Aristotle
[n]
[n] the end or completion of something; "death put a period to his endeavors"; "a change soon put a period to my tranquility"
[n] a unit of geological time during which a system of rocks formed; "ganoid fishes swarmed during the earlier geological periods"
[n] one of three periods of play in hockey games
[n] the interval taken to complete one cycle of a regularly repeating phenomenon
[n] a stage in the history of a culture having a definable place in space and time; "a novel from the Victorian period"



Webster (1913) Definition: Pe"ri*od, n. [L. periodus, Gr. ? a going round, a way
round, a circumference, a period of time; ? round, about + ?
a way: cf. F. p['e]riode.]
1. A portion of time as limited and determined by some
recurring phenomenon, as by the completion of a revolution
of one of the heavenly bodies; a division of time, as a
series of years, months, or days, in which something is
completed, and ready to recommence and go on in the same
order; as, the period of the sun, or the earth, or a
comet.

2. Hence: A stated and recurring interval of time; more
generally, an interval of time specified or left
indefinite; a certain series of years, months, days, or
the like; a time; a cycle; an age; an epoch; as, the
period of the Roman republic.

How by art to make plants more lasting than their
ordinary period. --Bacon.

3. (Geol.) One of the great divisions of geological time; as,
the Tertiary period; the Glacial period. See the Chart of
Geology.

4. The termination or completion of a revolution, cycle,
series of events, single event, or act; hence, a limit; a
bound; an end; a conclusion. --Bacon.

So spake the archangel Michael; then paused, As at
the world's great period. --Milton.

Evils which shall never end till eternity hath a
period. --Jer. Taylor.

This is the period of my ambition. --Shak.

5. (Rhet.) A complete sentence, from one full stop to
another; esp., a well-proportioned, harmonious sentence.
``Devolved his rounded periods.'' --Tennyson.

Periods are beautiful when they are not too long.
--B. Johnson.

Note: The period, according to Heyse, is a compound sentence
consisting of a protasis and apodosis; according to
Becker, it is the appropriate form for the
co["o]rdinate propositions related by antithesis or
causality. --Gibbs.

6. (Print.) The punctuation point [.] that marks the end of a
complete sentence, or of an abbreviated word.

7. (Math.) One of several similar sets of figures or terms
usually marked by points or commas placed at regular
intervals, as in numeration, in the extraction of roots,
and in circulating decimals.



8. (Med.) The time of the exacerbation and remission of a
disease, or of the paroxysm and intermission.

9. (Mus.) A complete musical sentence.

The period, the present or current time, as distinguished
from all other times.

Syn: Time; date; epoch; era; age; duration; limit; bound;
end; conclusion; determination.


Pe"ri*od, v. t.
To put an end to. [Obs.] --Shak.


Pe"ri*od, v. i.
To come to a period; to conclude. [Obs.] ``You may period
upon this, that,'' etc. --Felthman.

Synonyms: catamenia, flow, full point, full stop, geological period, historic period, historical period, menses, menstruation, point, stop

See Also: Age of Fishes, Age of Man, bimester, bimillenary, bimillennium, calendar day, calendar week, Cambrian, Cambrian period, Carboniferous, Carboniferous period, century, civil day, continuance, Cretaceous, Cretaceous period, dark, day, daylight, daytime, decade, decennary, decennium, Devonian, Devonian period, discharge, downtime, duration, elapsed time, emission, end, ending, epoch, era, eve, evening, expelling, festival, field day, forenoon, fortnight, fundamental measure, fundamental quantity, geologic time, geological era, geological time, glacial epoch, glacial period, half-century, hebdomad, hospitalization, hours, hypermenorrhea, ice age, Indian summer, interval, Jurassic, Jurassic period, lactation, life, lifespan, lifetime, Lower Carboniferous, Lower Carboniferous period, lustrum, menorrhagia, millennium, Missippian period, Mississippian, morn, morning, morning time, night, nighttime, occupation, oligomenorrhea, Olympiad, orbit period, Ordovician, Ordovician period, past, Pennsylvanian, Pennsylvanian period, period, period of play, period of time, Permian, Permian period, play, playing period, point, point in time, puerperium, punctuation, punctuation mark, quarter-century, Quaternary, Quaternary period, Saint Martin's summer, school, schooltime, semester, shelf life, Silurian, Silurian period, suspension point, Tertiary, Tertiary period, test period, time, time frame, time interval, time of life, time off, time period, travel time, trial period, Triassic, Triassic period, twelvemonth, two weeks, Upper Carboniferous, Upper Carboniferous period, uptime, week, weekend, work time, year, yr

Try our:
Scrabble Word Finder

Scrabble Cheat

Words With Friends Cheat

Hanging With Friends Cheat

Scramble With Friends Cheat

Ruzzle Cheat



Related Resources:
animals beginning with e
animals beginning with m
k letter animals