climacteric

comparative more climacteric · superlative most climacteric

1. Pertaining to any of several supposedly critical years of a person's life.First known use 17th c.

   Closely parallel to the belief in unlucky days was the notion of climacteric years, those periodic dates in a man's life which were potential turning-points in his health and fortune.

   1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 596

   1 more example

   Asari pass through three climacteric life stages, marked by biochemical and physiological changes. The Maiden stage begins at birth and is marked by the drive to explore and experience. Most young asari are curious and restless. The Matron stage of life begins around the age of 350, though it can be triggered earlier if the individual melds frequently. This period is marked by a desire to settle in one area and raise children. The Matriarch stage begins around 700, or earlier if the individual melds rarely. Matriarchs become active in their community as sages and councilors, dispensing wisdom from centuries of experience.

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Asari: Biology Codex entry

2. Critical or crucial; decisive.First known use 17th c.

   The seeds of a climateric insurrection against the hypocrisy of cultural norms.

   1991 May 4, Mary Dowd, “Risky Business”, in Gay Community News, page 7

3. medicineRelating to a period of physiological change during middle age; especially, menopausal.First known use 18th c.
4. Climactic.First known use 18th c.
5. biology(of fruit) That continues to ripen after being harvested.

plural climacterics

1. A critical stage or decisive point; a turning point.First known use 17th c.

   Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since, p. 66-67. [H]e was in his grand climacterick, with a florid brow, and a step like youthful agility. Sigourney, Lydia.

   2 more examples

   It is your lot, as it was mine, to live during one of the grand climacterics of the world.

   1829, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC

   I should hardly yield my rigid fibers to be regenerated by them; nor begin, in my grand climacteric, to squall in their new accents, or to stammer, in my second cradle, the elemental sounds of their barbarous metaphysics.

   1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC

2. A period in human life in which some great change is supposed to take place, calculated in different ways by different authorities (often identified as every seventh or ninth year).First known use 17th c.
3. medicineThe period of life that leads up to and follows the end of menstruation in women; the menopause.First known use 18th c.

   Once women have traversed the turmoil of the climacteric years and reached the hormonal steady-state of the post-menopause, there is almost certainly no increase in the incidence of depression.

   1998, Roger N J Smith, John W. W. Studd, The Menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy, page 8