period
Pluralperiods
Pluralperiods
Formsperiods, perioding, perioded
- 1An amount of time with a beginning and an end, long or short.
Like one chapter of a book: a clear piece of the whole story.
The store will be closed for a short period next week.
There was a calm period right after the storm passed.
UsageOften used with over or for: for a short period.
- 2
- 3The bleeding from the womb that happens about once a month, along with the cramps and other feelings that come with it.
She often gets cramps during her period.
Many girls start having periods in their early teens.
UsageSay my period or her period. On her period means it is happening now.
Similarmenstruation
Note
- 4
- 5One of the parts a game's playing time is divided into, including extra time played when the score is tied.
The home team scored twice in the first period.
He sat out the final period with an injury.
Note
- 6Used to say something is final and there is nothing more to discuss.
You're not going to the party, period.
I'm done talking about it, period.
UsageComes at the end of a sentence and sounds very firm: no, period.
Note
- 7From a time in the past, or made to look like it, such as old furniture or a film set long ago.
The museum displays period furniture from the colonial era.
The actors wore period costumes from the 1920s.
UsagePut it before a noun: a period drama.
Similarhistorical
Oppositemodern, contemporary
Note
- 8A very long stretch of Earth's past, part of an era and split into smaller pieces.
Dinosaurs lived during the Jurassic period.
These fossils come from the Jurassic period.
Note
Less common meanings
- 9The small dot mark you write at the end of a sentence.
Like a stop sign that tells the reader the sentence is finished.
Remember to put a period at the end of each sentence.
She forgot the period after the abbreviation in her note.
UsageBritish English says full stop.
Note
- 10The time or length it takes for something that repeats, like a wave or a pattern, to start over again.
Like the time a swing takes to go forward and come back to the start.
The period of this pendulum is about two seconds.
This pendulum swings with a period of two seconds.
Note
- 11The end of something. The point where it finally stops.
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.
1886, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of AdventureNote
- 12A sideways row in the table of chemical elements.
Like one shelf in a cabinet where things are lined up in order.
Sodium and magnesium sit in the same period of the table.
Each period adds one more shell of electrons to the atoms.
Similarrow
Note
- 13A particular moment or stage within something that is happening.
The Death of Patroclus was the most eminent Period; and consequently the most proper Time for such Games.
1720, Alexander Pope, translating HomerHere, Period means a point or stage reached, an important moment.Note
- 14The amount of time a sickness takes to run from start to finish.
Note
- 15To end, or to make something end.
- 16To bleed each month as part of the body's natural cycle.
- 17A full, well-formed sentence that expresses one complete thought.
- 18In music, a unit made of two phrases that answer each other.
- 19A fruit fly gene that helps control the body's daily sleep-and-wake cycle.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Ancient Greek 'períodos', meaning a circuit or a recurring interval of time. It came into English through French and Latin.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The word derives from Ancient Greek períodos, meaning a circuit or a recurring interval of time. en.wiktionary.org
- The word entered English through French and Latin. en.wiktionary.org