Definition of "period" in English

noun

1. A length of time.

   • There was a period of confusion following the announcement.
   • You'll be on probation for a six-month period.

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

   • Food rationing continued in the post-war period.

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

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

5. 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.

6. (euphemistic) Female menstruation; an episode of this.

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

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

   • This is one of the last paintings Picasso created during his Blue Period.

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

   • I have math class in second period.

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

   • Gretzky scored in the last minute of the second period.

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

    • They won in the first overtime period.

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

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

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

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

    • The Death of Patroclus was the most eminent Period; and consequently the most proper Time for such Games.

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

16. (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.

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

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