period

plural periods · alternative abbreviation per.

1. A length of time.First known use 17th c.

   You'll be on probation for a six-month period.

   2 more examples

   There was a period of confusion following the announcement.

   Philip Miles, defending, said: "This was a single instance, there was no allegation of continuing behaviour over a long period of time."

   2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian

2. A length of time in history seen as a single coherent entity; an epoch, era.First known use 16th c.

   Food rationing continued in the post-war period.

   2 more examples

   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.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Sung Yung-hsi of Ch’u-hsiung was a government student during the Chia-ch’ing period.

   1962, Chung-li Chang, The Income of the Chinese Gentry, Seattle: University of Washington Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 235

   Synonyms: vintage

3. CanadaPhilippinesUSThe punctuation mark “.” (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).

   ‘You know, a period? The black spot at the end of a sentence — what do you call them over there?’

   2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 299

   Synonyms: point, full stop, dot, full-point, plain point

4. figurativelyA decisive end to something; a stop.

   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 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

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.First known use 17th c.
6. euphemisticFemale menstruation; an episode of this.First known use 18th c.

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

   1. euphemisticThe set of symptoms associated with menstruation, even if not accompanied by menstruation; an episode of these symptoms.
7. A section of an artist's, writer's (etc.) career distinguished by a given quality, preoccupation etc.First known use 19th c.

   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.First known use 19th c.

   I have math class in second period.

9. hobbiesEach of the intervals, typically three, of which a game is divided.First known use 19th c.

   Gretzky scored in the last minute of the second period.

10. hobbiesOne or more additional intervals to decide a tied game, an overtime period.

    They won in the first overtime period.

11. obsoletemedicineThe length of time for a disease to run its course.First known use 15th–19th c.
12. archaicAn end or conclusion; the final point of a process, a state, an event, etc.First known use 16th c.

    Set up an hour-glasse; hee’l go on untill The last sand make his Period.

    1651, William Cartwright, The Ordinary, London: Humphrey Moseley, act III, scene 5, page 51

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    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 […]

    1590, Robert Greene, “The Shepheards Tale”, in Greenes Mourning Garment, London: Thomas Newman, page 17

    And if my death might make this island happy, And prove the period of their tyranny, I would expend it with all willingness:

    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]

    Why now let me die, for I haue liu'd long enough : This is the period of my ambition : O this bleſſed houre.

    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

    All comes to one period, whether man make an end of himſelfe, or whether he endure-it[…].

    1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 203

    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.

    1629, John Beaumont, “A Description of Love”, in Bosworth-field with a Taste of the Variety of Other Poems, London: Henry Seile, page 100

13. rhetoricA complete sentence, especially one expressing a single thought or making a balanced, rhythmic whole.First known use 16th c.

    Periods are beautiful when they are not too long.

    1641, Ben Jonson, Timber

    4 more examples

    that such iron moulds as these shall have autority to knaw out the choicest periods of exquisitest books, and to commit such a treacherous fraud against the orphan remainders of worthiest men after death, the more sorrow will belong to that haples race of men, whose misfortune it is to have understanding.

    1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC

    In declamatory periods Dr Fordyce spins out Rousseau's eloquence […]

    1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC

    A very superior gentleman, Mr. Kenge. Truly eloquent indeed. Some of his periods quite majestic!

    1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC

    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.

    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

14. obsoleteA specific moment during a given process; a point, a stage.First known use 17th–19th c.

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

    1720, Alexander Pope, translating Homer, Iliad, Book IV (note 125)

15. chemistryA row in the periodic table of the elements.First known use 19th c.
16. geographyA 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.

    1 more example

    Fossils are particularly well described from the Carboniferous, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and have been found in the USA, England, Russia, Lebanon and Germany. Sites such as Lyme Regis in Dorset have particularly yielded number of Jurassic “squid” ink sacs and nodules (Doguzhaeva et al. 2004).

    2017 August 9, Mark Carnall, “Why do cephalopods produce ink? And what's ink made of, anyway?”, in The Guardian

17. biologyA Drosophila gene, the gene product of which is involved in regulation of the circadian rhythm.

    Polyclonal antibodies were prepared against the period gene product, which influences biological rhythms in D. melanogaster, by using small synthetic peptides from the per sequence as immunogens.

    1988 April 1, “Antibodies to the period gene product of drosophila reveal diverse tissue distribution and rhythmic changes in the visual system”, in Neuron, volume 1, number 2, page 141

18. entertainmentTwo phrases (an antecedent and a consequent phrase).
19. mathematicsThe length of an interval over which a periodic function, periodic sequence or repeating decimal repeats; often the least such length.

alternative abbreviation per.

1. not comparableDesignating anything from a given historical era.

   a period car

   2 more examples

   a period TV commercial

   Located on the northbound platform, the detached, timber-clad waiting room (a period Furness Railway structure) has been adapted into a pet-friendly, self-catering, two-bedroom holiday home complete with sun lounge and garden for those sunny Cumbrian days.

   2025 October 15, Stephen Roberts, “Top 10: Railway retreats: St Bees, Cumbria”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 57

2. not comparableEvoking, or appropriate for, a particular historical period, especially through the use of elaborate costumes and scenery.

   a period piece

   1 more example

   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.

   2004, Mark Singer, Somewhere in America, Houghton Mifflin, page 70

3. not comparableMenstrual.

   period pains

   2 more examples

   period blood

   period supplies

alternative abbreviation per.

1. CanadaUSThat's final; that's the end of the matter (analogous to a period ending a sentence); end of story.

   I'm the GOAT, point blank period!

   1 more example

   I know you don't want to go to the dentist, but your teeth need to be checked, period!

   Synonyms: full stop, that's that, end of discussion

present singular third person periods · participle present perioding · participle past perioded · past perioded · alternative abbreviation per.

1. intransitiveobsoleteTo come to a period; to conclude.

   For you may period upon this, that where there is the most pity for others, there is the greatest misery in the party pitied.

   1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political

2. obsoleteraretransitiveTo put an end to.
3. colloquialTo menstruate; to excrete menstrual blood.