period

Academic Word List, sublist 1.

About 187.78 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. noun A length of time. .mw-parser-output .defdate{font-size:smaller}

   There was a period of confusion following the announcement.

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

   Food rationing continued in the post-war period.

3. noun The punctuation mark “.” (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).
4. noun A decisive end to something; a stop.
5. noun 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. noun Female menstruation; an episode of this.

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

7. noun The set of symptoms associated with menstruation, even if not accompanied by menstruation; an episode of these symptoms.
8. noun 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.

Similar words

period of time time period point stop full stop full point flow catamenia menstruation menses

Often followed by

of in and is the when from was to

Word family

periodic periodical periodically periodicals periods