Princeton's WordNet(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. time period, period of time, period(noun)

   an amount of time

   "a time period of 30 years"; "hastened the period of time of his recovery"; "Picasso's blue period"

2. period(noun)

   the interval taken to complete one cycle of a regularly repeating phenomenon

3. period(noun)

   (ice hockey) one of three divisions into which play is divided in hockey games

4. period, geological period(noun)

   a unit of geological time during which a system of rocks formed

   "ganoid fishes swarmed during the earlier geological periods"

5. period(noun)

   the end or completion of something

   "death put a period to his endeavors"; "a change soon put a period to my tranquility"

6. menstruation, menses, menstruum, catamenia, period, flow(noun)

   the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause

   "the women were sickly and subject to excessive menstruation"; "a woman does not take the gout unless her menses be stopped"--Hippocrates; "the semen begins to appear in males and to be emitted at the same time of life that the catamenia begin to flow in females"--Aristotle

7. period, point, full stop, stop, full point(noun)

   a punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations

   "in England they call a period a stop"

GCIDE(1.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Period(n.)

   (Sports) One of the specified time intervals into which a game is divided; as, there are three periods in a hockey game.

2. Period(n.)

   (Education) One of the specified time intervals into which the academic day is divided; as, my calculus class is in the first period.

3. Period(n.)

   The time interval during which a woman is menstruating, or the event of a single menstruation; as, her period was late this month.

Origin: [L. periodus, Gr. peri`odos a going round, a way round, a circumference, a period of time; peri` round, about + "odo`s a way: cf. F. priode.]

Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. period(Noun)

   The length of time for a disease to run its course.

2. period(Noun)

   An end or conclusion; the final point of a process etc.

3. period(Noun)

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

   Food rationing continued in the post-war period.

4. period(Noun)

   A complete sentence, especially one expressing a single thought or making a balanced, rhythmic whole.

5. period(Noun)

   The punctuation mark u201C.u201D (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).

6. period(Noun)

   A length of time.

7. period(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.

8. period(Noun)

   A specific moment during a given process; a point, a stage.

9. period(Noun)

   Female menstruation.

   When she is on her period she can be more disagreeable than usual

10. period(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.

11. period(Noun)

    Each of the divisions into which a school day is split, allocated to a given subject or activity.

    I have math class in second period.

12. period(Noun)

    Each of the intervals into which various sporting events are divided.

    Gretzky scored in the last minute of the second period.

13. period(Noun)

    A row in the periodic table of the elements.

14. period(Noun)

    A Drosophila gene which gene product is involved in regulation of the circadian rhythm

15. period(Noun)

    two phrases (an antecedent and a consequent phrase)

16. period(Adjective)

    Appropriate for a given historical era.

17. period(Interjection)

    And nothing else; and nothing less; used for emphasis.

    When I say "eat your dinner," it means "eat your dinner," period!

Origin: From periode, from periode, from periodus, from περίοδος, from περί- + ὁδός. Displaced native tide, from tid, elde, from ieldu.

Webster Dictionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Period(noun)

   a portion of time as limited and determined by some recurring phenomenon, as by the completion of a revolution of one of the heavenly bodies; a division of time, as a series of years, months, or days, in which something is completed, and ready to recommence and go on in the same order; as, the period of the sun, or the earth, or a comet

2. Period(noun)

   a stated and recurring interval of time; more generally, an interval of time specified or left indefinite; a certain series of years, months, days, or the like; a time; a cycle; an age; an epoch; as, the period of the Roman republic

3. Period(noun)

   one of the great divisions of geological time; as, the Tertiary period; the Glacial period. See the Chart of Geology

4. Period(noun)

   the termination or completion of a revolution, cycle, series of events, single event, or act; hence, a limit; a bound; an end; a conclusion

5. Period(noun)

   a complete sentence, from one full stop to another; esp., a well-proportioned, harmonious sentence

6. Period(noun)

   the punctuation point [.] that marks the end of a complete sentence, or of an abbreviated word

7. Period(noun)

   one of several similar sets of figures or terms usually marked by points or commas placed at regular intervals, as in numeration, in the extraction of roots, and in circulating decimals

8. Period(noun)

   the time of the exacerbation and remission of a disease, or of the paroxysm and intermission

9. Period(noun)

   a complete musical sentence

10. Period(verb)

    to put an end to

11. Period(verb)

    to come to a period; to conclude. [Obs.] "You may period upon this, that," etc

Origin: [L. periodus, Gr. peri`odos a going round, a way round, a circumference, a period of time; peri` round, about + "odo`s a way: cf. F. priode.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Period

   A geologic period is a time unit subdivision of geologic time defined as a span of years into which the larger era time units are divided into smaller timeframes, as Era's divide the Eon. In the Earth Sciences rocks and especially the sequences of rocks called stratum arrayed in an ordered "rock column" occurring during a timespan are the focus of study so the time units are paired with corresponding Rock strata units whose characteristics define such points elsewhere that occurred concurrently as the local rock layers were laid down as sediments. For the Geological Period the paired rock strata term, a geologic stage is used to denote the corresponding rock layers of both the geologic record and the fossil record; thus the rocks of the Devonian System were laid down during the Devonian Period, and such equivalent units exist at each level of refinement of geological chronology and biogeological or stratigraphic classification. Each unit of strata, no matter how interrupted the record recorded in the local rock column, is mapped into the overall geologic record and classified carefully into chronological units of geologic time based on world wide efforts of the International Commission on Stratigraphy working to correlate the world's local stratigraphic record into one uniform planet wide benchmarked system, in a steady effort ongoing since 1974. While paleontologists often refer to faunal stages rather than geologic periods, they are often used in popular presentations of paleontology or plate reconstructions.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Period

   pē′ri-ud, n. the time in which anything is performed: (astron.) the time occupied by one of the heavenly bodies in making its revolution: a stated interval of time, at the end of which certain events begin again to go through the same course as before: a series of events: a series of years: length of duration: the time at which anything ends: conclusion: (gram.) a mark at the end of a sentence: (rhet.) a complete sentence.—v.t. (Shak.) to put an end to.—adjs. Period′ic, -al, pertaining to a period: happening by revolution: occurring at regular intervals: pertaining to periodicals.—ns. Period′ical, a magazine or other publication which appears in parts at regular periods; Period′icalist, one who writes in a periodical.—adv. Period′ically.—n. Periodic′ity, state of being periodic: tendency to happen over again at regular intervals of time.—Periodical literature, literature published in magazines, &c.; Periodic function, one whose operation being iterated a certain number of times restores the variable: a function having a period; Periodic inequality, a disturbance in the motion of a planet due to its position in its orbit relatively to another planet; Periodic law (chem.), a relation of elements according to their atomic weights. [Fr.,—L.,—Gr. periodos—peri, around, hodos, a way.]

The Standard Electrical Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Period

   The time required for the completion of one complete element of periodic motion. This may be a complete alternation (See Alternation, Complete) of an alternating current, or of an oscillatory discharge.

Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. period

   The time it takes for a satellite to complete one orbit around the earth.

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'period' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #341

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'period' in Written Corpus Frequency: #746

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'period' in Nouns Frequency: #91

Anagrams for period »

1. dopier

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of period in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of period in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Sample Sentences & Example Usage

1. President Obama:

   It's been a hard period.

2. St Just:

   It's been a difficult period.

3. Roy Cooper:

   Discrimination is wrong, period.

4. Andrew Bailey:

   It needs to be a sensible period.

5. Gilson Pelicioni:

   It is now for an indefinite period.

Images & Illustrations of period

Popularity rank by frequency of use