Skip to definition.
Get the FREE one-click dictionary software for Windows or the iPhone/iPad and Android apps


Noun: period  peer-ee-ud
  1. An amount of time
    "a time period of 30 years"; "hastened the period of time of his recovery"; "Picasso's blue period";
    - time period, period of time, time span
     
  2. The interval taken to complete one cycle of a regularly repeating phenomenon
     
  3. A unit of geological time during which a system of rocks formed
    "ganoid fishes swarmed during the earlier geological periods";
    - geological period
     
  4. The end or completion of something
    "death put a period to his endeavours"; "a change soon put a period to my tranquility"
     
  5. The monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause
    - menstruation, menses, menstruum, catamenia, flow
     
  6. A punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations
    - point, full stop, stop, full point [Brit, rare]
     
  7. (ice hockey) one of three divisions into which play is divided in hockey games

Derived forms: periods

Type of: discharge, division, emission, end, ending, expelling, fundamental measure, fundamental quantity, geologic time, geological time, interval, part, punctuation, punctuation mark [Brit], section, time interval

Part of: era, geological era, period of play, play, playing period

Encyclopedia: Period