period

• per. (abbreviation)

From Middle English periode, from Middle French periode, from Medieval Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos, “circuit, period 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”), Middle English elde (“age, period”), from Old English ieldu (“age, period of time”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪəɹɪəd/

• Audio (US)

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period (plural periods)

1. 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."

2. A period 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. B. Maxwell, chapter 7, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

3. (now chiefly Canada, US) The punctuation mark “.” (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).
4. 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.]
5. Female menstruation. [from 18th c.]

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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. (chiefly Canada, US) Each of the intervals into which various sporting events are divided. [from 19th c.]

   Gretzky scored in the last minute of the second period.

9. (obsolete, medicine) The length of time for a disease to run its course. [15th-19th c.]
10. An end or conclusion; the final point of a process etc. [from 16th c.]
    • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry VViues of VVindsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [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, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821, 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. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

      , 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.

11. (rhetoric) A complete sentence, especially one expressing a single thought or making a balanced, rhythmic whole. [from 16th c.]
    • Ben Jonson

      Periods are beautiful when they are not too long.

    • 1644, John Milton, Aeropagitica:

      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.

12. (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.

13. (chemistry) A row in the periodic table of the elements. [from 19th c.]
14. (geology) A subdivision of an era, typically lasting from tens to hundreds of millions of years, see Appendix: Geologic timescale.
15. (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 “Gene Dmel\per”, in FlyBase‎ (Gene Report (database record), in English), The FlyBase Consortium, 20 November 2009, retrieved 2009
16. (music) Two phrases (an antecedent and a consequent phrase).
17. (mathematics) The length of an interval over which a periodic function, periodic sequence or repeating decimal repeats; often the least such length.
18. (archaic) End point, conclusion.
    • 1590, Robert Greene, Greenes Mourning Garment, London: Thomas Newman, “The Shepheards Tale,” p. 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 […]

    • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act III, Scene 1,

      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, London: Henry Seile, p. 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, p. 51,

      Set up an hour-glasse; hee’l go on untill

      The last sand make his Period.

• (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

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

• pseudoperiod

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.

period

1. (chiefly Canada, US) That's final; that's the end of the matter (analogous to a period ending a sentence).

   I know you don't want to go to the dentist but your teeth need to be checked, period!

• (that's final): full stop

• Appendix:Unsupported titles

Punctuation

• 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.
• period at OneLook Dictionary Search

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.
   • Owen Felltham

     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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

• dopier, dorpie

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

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

perìod m (Cyrillic spelling перѝод)

1. period (of time)

• “period” in Hrvatski jezični portal

• IPA^(key): /pɛrːjuːd/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːd

period c

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

• brunstperiod
• periodare
• periodicitet
• periodisering
• periodisk
• periodkort
• periodvis