period

noun

(now chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) The punctuation mark “.” (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).

A length of time.

A length of time in history seen as a single coherent entity; an epoch, era.

(euphemistic) Female menstruation; an episode of this.

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

Each of the divisions into which a school day is split, allocated to a given subject or activity.

(sports, chiefly ice hockey) Each of the intervals, typically three, of which a game is divided.

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

(figurative) A decisive end to something; a stop.

(rhetoric) A complete sentence, especially one expressing a single thought or making a balanced, rhythmic whole.

(chemistry) A row in the periodic table of the elements.

(geology) A geochronologic unit of millions to tens of millions of years; a subdivision of an era, and subdivided into epochs.

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.

(mathematics) The length of an interval over which a periodic function, periodic sequence or repeating decimal repeats; often the least such length.

A section of an artist's, writer's (etc.) career distinguished by a given quality, preoccupation etc.

(genetics) A Drosophila gene, the gene product of which is involved in regulation of the circadian rhythm.

(music) Two phrases (an antecedent and a consequent phrase).

(obsolete, medicine) The length of time for a disease to run its course.

(archaic) An end or conclusion; the final point of a process, a state, an event, etc.

(obsolete) A specific moment during a given process; a point, a stage.

verb

(colloquial) To menstruate; to excrete menstrual blood.

(obsolete, intransitive) To come to a period; to conclude.

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

adjective

Menstrual.

Designating anything from a given historical era.

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

Roots

periperi- · Greek · around, near hodos-od · Greek · way, road

Synonyms for period

catamenian mensesn menstruationn epochn timen eran intervaln daysn durationn pointn spann

Synonyms & related words for period

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of period — including catamenia, menses, menstruation, epoch, time, era. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to period

Explore words related to period — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include menstruum, interlunation, floruit, coetaneous, quinquennium, during, months, afteryears. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for period

Common synonyms for period include catamenia, menses, menstruation, epoch, time, era, interval, days — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does period come from?

The word period breaks down into 2 roots of Greek origin: peri-, from Greek peri (“around, near”); and -od, from Greek hodos (“way, road”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.