Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English periode, from Middle French periode, from Medieval Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos, “circuit, an interval 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”), as well as Middle English elde (“age, period”), from Old English ieldu (“age, period of time”).
PronunciationEdit
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈpɪə.ɹi.əd/, /ˈpɪə.ɹɪ.əd/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈpɪɚ.i.əd/, /ˈpɪɹ.i.əd/
period (plural periods)
- 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.
- 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[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071: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.
- (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?’
- (figurative) A decisive end to something; a stop.
1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017: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.
- 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.]
- (euphemistic) Female menstruation; an episode of this. [from 18th c.]
When she is on her period, she prefers not to go swimming.
- 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.
- 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.
- (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.
- (sports, chiefly ice hockey) One or more additional intervals to decide a tied game, an overtime period.
They won in the first overtime period.
- (obsolete, medicine) The length of time for a disease to run its course. [15th–19th c.]
- An end or conclusion; the final point of a process etc. [from 16th c.]
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 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, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] 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. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], 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.
- (rhetoric) A complete sentence, especially one expressing a single thought or making a balanced, rhythmic whole. [from 16th c.]
- 1641, Ben Jonson, Timber
- Periods are beautiful when they are not too long.
1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:He writhed for twenty minutes under the flowery and eulogistic periods of the president, and rose himself in the state of confused indignation which the Briton feels when he is publicly approved.
- (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.
- (chemistry) A row in the periodic table of the elements. [from 19th c.]
- (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.
- (genetics) A Drosophila gene, the gene product of which is involved in regulation of the circadian rhythm.
2009 November 20, “Gene Dmel\per”, in FlyBase[1] (Gene Report (database record)), The FlyBase Consortium, retrieved 7 December:Symbol: Dmel\per / Species: D. melanogaster / Name: period
- (music) Two phrases (an antecedent and a consequent phrase).
- (mathematics) The length of an interval over which a periodic function, periodic sequence or repeating decimal repeats; often the least such length.
- (archaic) End point, conclusion.
- 1590, Robert Greene, Greenes Mourning Garment, London: Thomas Newman, “The Shepheards Tale,” p. 17,[2]
- 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 606515358, [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:
- 1629, John Beaumont, “A Description of Love” in Bosworth-field with a Taste of the Variety of Other Poems, London: Henry Seile, p. 100,[3]
- 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,[4]
- Set up an hour-glasse; hee’l go on untill
- The last sand make his Period.
- (length of time of recurrence of a periodic phenomenon): frequency
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
length of time for a disease to run its course
end or conclusion; final point of a process
history: period of time seen as coherent entity
- Albanian: periudhë (sq)
- Arabic: مَرْحَلَة زَمْنِيَّة f (marḥala zamniyya), مُدَّة f (mudda), حِين (ar) m (ḥīn), (length of time) فَتْرَة f (fatra), عَصْر (ar) m (ʕaṣr)
- Armenian: շրջան (hy) (šrǰan), ժամականաշրջան (žamakanašrǰan), փուլ (hy) (pʿul)
- Belarusian: перы́яд m (pjerýjad)
- Bulgarian: епо́ха (bg) f (epóha)
- Catalan: període (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 時代/时代 (zh) (shídài)
- Czech: období (cs) n
- Dutch: periode (nl) f
- Finnish: aika (fi), ajanjakso (fi)
- French: période (fr) f
- German: Epoche (de) f, Zeitraum (de) m, Periode (de) f
- Greek: περίοδος (el) f (períodos)
- Hebrew: תְּקוּפָה (he) f (tqufá)
- Hindi: काल (hi) m (kāl)
- Hungarian: időszak (hu), periódus (hu)
- Indonesian: masa (id)
- Italian: periodo (it) m
- Japanese: 時代 (ja) (じだい, jidai)
- Korean: 시대(時代) (ko) (sidae)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: دەم (ku) (dem)
- Macedonian: перио́д m (periód)
- Malayalam: കാലഘട്ടം (kālaghaṭṭaṃ)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: periode (no) m, æra (no) m
- Persian: دوره (fa) (dure), مدت (fa) (moddat)
- Polish: okres (pl) m, period (pl) (formal)
- Portuguese: período (pt) m
- Romanian: perioadă (ro) f
- Russian: пери́од (ru) m (períod)
- Scottish Gaelic: àm m, ùine f
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Roman: period (sh) m, doba (sh) n, razdoblje (sh) n
- Slovak: perióda
- Slovene: doba f, obdobje n
- Spanish: período (es) m
- Swahili: zamani (sw), muda (sw)
- Swedish: period (sv) c, tidsperiod (sv)
- Tagalog: puktol, panahon (tl)
- Turkish: dönem (tr)
- Ukrainian: пері́од m (períod)
- Urdu: کال m (kāl)
- Uzbek: davr (uz)
- Vietnamese: giai đoạn (vi), thời kì (vi)
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rhetoric: complete sentence
punctation mark “.”
- Albanian: pikë (sq)
- Arabic: نُقْطَة (ar) f (nuqṭa), عَلَامَة فَصْلِيَّة f (ʿalāma faṣliyya)
- Armenian: (indicating end of sentence) վերջակետ (hy) (verǰaket), (marking an abbreviation) կետ (hy) (ket)
- Azerbaijani: nöqtə (az)
- Belarusian: кро́пка f (krópka)
- Bulgarian: то́чка (bg) f (tóčka)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 。 (zh) (Chinese symbol), 句號/句号 (zh) (jùhào), 句點/句点 (zh) (jùdiǎn) (European dot: “.”)
- Czech: tečka (cs) f
- Danish: punktum (da) n
- Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
- Dutch: punt (nl) f
- Esperanto: punkto
- Estonian: please add this translation if you can
- Faroese: punktum n
- Finnish: piste (fi)
- French: point (fr) m
- Georgian: წერტილი (c̣erṭili)
- German: Punkt (de) m
- Greek: τελεία (el) f (teleía)
- Hausa: ɗigo m
- Hebrew: נְקֻדָּה (he) f (nequdá)
- Hindi: । (Hindi symbol), दंड (hi) m (daṇḍ), पूर्ण विराम (pūrṇ virām)
- Hungarian: pont (hu)
- Italian: punto (it) m
- Japanese: 。 (ja) (Japanese symbol), 句点 (ja) (くてん, kuten), 終止符 (ja) (しゅうしふ, shūshifu), ピリオド (ja) (piriodo)
- Kazakh: нүкте (kk) (nükte)
- Korean: 마침표 (ko) (machimpyo), 종지부(終止符) (ko) (jongjibu)
- Kyrgyz: чекит (ky) (çekit)
- Latvian: punkts m
- Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
- Macedonian: точка f (točka)
- Maranao: ayatan
- Mongolian: цэг (mn) (ceg)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: punktum (no) n
- Persian: نقطه (fa) (noqte)
- Plautdietsch: Punkt m
- Polish: kropka (pl) f
- Portuguese: ponto (pt) m, ponto final (pt) m
- Romanian: punct (ro) n
- Russian: то́чка (ru) f (tóčka)
- Sanskrit: ।, दंड (sa) m (daṃḍa)
- Scottish Gaelic: stad-phuing f
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: та̏чка f, то̏чка f
- Roman: tȁčka (sh) f, tȍčka (sh) f
- Slovak: bodka (sk) f
- Slovene: pika (sl) f
- Spanish: punto (es) m
- Swahili: nukta (sw)
- Swedish: punkt (sv) c
- Tagalog: tuldok
- Tajik: нуқта (nuqta)
- Thai: จุด (th) (jùt)
- Turkish: nokta (tr)
- Ukrainian: кра́пка f (krápka)
- Urdu: ۔ (Urdu symbol)
- Uyghur: چېكىت (chëkit)
- Uzbek: nuqta (uz)
- Yiddish: פּונקט m (punkt)
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length of time during which something repeats
specific moment during a process
section of an artist's career
chemistry: row in the periodic table
Translations to be checked
AdjectiveEdit
period (not comparable)
- Designating anything from a given historical era. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- a period car
- a period TV commercial
- 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.
InterjectionEdit
period
- (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!
TranslationsEdit
Punctuation
Further readingEdit
period (third-person singular simple present periods, present participle perioding, simple past and past participle perioded)
- (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.
- (obsolete, transitive, rare) To put an end to.