Wiktionary

period

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English periode, from Middle French periode, from Medieval Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos, “circuit, orbit, a recurring interval of time, path around”), from περι- (peri-, “around”) + ὁδός (hodós, “way”). Displaced native Middle English tide (“interval, period, season”), from Old English tīd (“time, period, season”), as well as Middle English elde (“age, period”), from Old English ieldu (“age, period of time”).

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈpɪə.ɹi.əd/, /ˈpɪə.ɹɪ.əd/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈpɪɚ.i.əd/, /ˈpɪɹ.i.əd/
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (Hong Kong) IPA(key): /ˈpi.ɹɪd/

Noun

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period (plural periods)

  2. 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.
  4. A length 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[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      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.
  6. (now chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) The punctuation mark “.” (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).
    • 2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 299:
      ‘You know, a period? The black spot at the end of a sentence — what do you call them over there?’
  8. (figurative) A decisive end to something; a stop.
  10. 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.]
  12. (euphemistic) Female menstruation; an episode of this. [from 18th c.]
    When she is on her period, she prefers not to go swimming.
    2. The set of symptoms associated with menstruation, even if not accompanied by menstruation; an episode of these symptoms.
  14. 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.
  16. 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.
  18. (sports, chiefly ice hockey) Each of the intervals, typically three, of which a game is divided. [from 19th c.]
    Gretzky scored in the last minute of the second period.
  20. (sports, chiefly ice hockey) One or more additional intervals to decide a tied game, an overtime period.
    They won in the first overtime period.
  22. (obsolete, medicine) The length of time for a disease to run its course. [15th–19th c.]
  24. (archaic) An end or conclusion; the final point of a process, a state, an event, etc. [from 16th c.]
    • 1590, Robert Greene, “The Shepheards Tale”, in Greenes Mourning Garment‎[1], London: Thomas Newman, page 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 […]
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
      And if my death might make this island happy,
      And prove the period of their tyranny,
      I would expend it with all willingness:
    • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 203:
      All comes to one period, whether man make an end of himſelfe, or whether he endure-it […].
    • 1629, John Beaumont, “A Description of Love”, in Bosworth-field with a Taste of the Variety of Other Poems‎[2], London: Henry Seile, page 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[3], London: Humphrey Moseley, act III, scene 5, page 51:
      Set up an hour-glasse; hee’l go on untill
      The last sand make his Period.
    • 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. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, 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.
  26. (rhetoric) A complete sentence, especially one expressing a single thought or making a balanced, rhythmic whole. [from 16th c.]
  28. (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.
  30. (chemistry) A row in the periodic table of the elements. [from 19th c.]
  32. (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.
  34. (genetics) A Drosophila gene, the gene product of which is involved in regulation of the circadian rhythm.
  36. (music) Two phrases (an antecedent and a consequent phrase).
  38. (mathematics) The length of an interval over which a periodic function, periodic sequence or repeating decimal repeats; often the least such length.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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  • (antonym(s) of “length of time of recurrence of a periodic phenomenon”): frequency

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

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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.
    a period piece
    • 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.

Translations

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Interjection

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period

  1. (chiefly Canada, US) That's final; that's the end of the matter (analogous to a period ending a sentence); end of story.
    I know you don't want to go to the dentist, but your teeth need to be checked, period!

Synonyms

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Translations

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See also

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  • (symbol) .

Punctuation

Further reading

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Verb

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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.
    • 1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political:
      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.
  3. (colloquial) To menstruate; to excrete menstrual blood.

Anagrams

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Polish

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Latin periodus, Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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period m inan

  1. (literary) period (a length of time)
    Synonym: okres
  2. (literary) period (a period of time in history seen as a single coherent entity)
    Synonym: okres
  3. (literary) period (the length of time during which the same characteristics of a periodic phenomenon recur)
    Synonym: okres
  4. (physiology) period (female menstruation)
    Synonyms: ciota, ciotka, menstruacja, miesiączka, okres
  5. (rhetoric) period (full sentence)
    Synonym: okres

Declension

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Declension of period
singular plural
nominative period periody
genitive periodu periodów
dative periodowi periodom
accusative period periody
instrumental periodem periodami
locative periodzie periodach
vocative periodzie periody

Derived terms

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adjectives
adverb
nouns
verbs

Further reading

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  • period in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • period in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

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Noun

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period n (plural perioade)

  1. Alternative form of perioadă

Declension

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Declension of period
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative period periodul perioade perioadele
genitive-dative period periodului perioade perioadelor
vocative periodule perioadelor

Serbo-Croatian

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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perìod m (Cyrillic spelling перѝод)

  1. period (of time)

Declension

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Declension of period
singular plural
nominative period periodi
genitive perioda perioda
dative periodu periodima
accusative period periode
vocative periode periodi
locative periodu periodima
instrumental periodom periodima

References

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  • “period”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Swedish

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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period c

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

Declension

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Declension of period
nominative genitive
singular indefinite period periods
definite perioden periodens
plural indefinite perioder perioders
definite perioderna periodernas
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