[syn: period, point, full stop, stop, full point]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Period \Pe"ri*od\, n. [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. p['e]riode.]
1. A portion of time as limited and determined by some
recurring or cyclic 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; the period of an electromagnetic wave
is the time interval between maxima.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence: 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.
[1913 Webster]
How by art to make plants more lasting than their
ordinary period. --Bacon.
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3. (Geol.) One of the great divisions of geological time; as,
the Tertiary period; the Glacial period. See the Chart of
Geology.
[1913 Webster]
4. The termination or completion of a revolution, cycle,
series of events, single event, or act; hence, a limit; a
bound; an end; a conclusion. --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
So spake the archangel Michael; then paused,
As at the world's great period. --Milton.
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Evils which shall never end till eternity hath a
period. --Jer. Taylor.
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This is the period of my ambition. --Shak.
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5. (Rhet.) A complete sentence, from one full stop to
another; esp., a well-proportioned, harmonious sentence.
"Devolved his rounded periods." --Tennyson.
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Periods are beautiful when they are not too long.
--B. Johnson.
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Note: The period, according to Heyse, is a compound sentence
consisting of a protasis and apodosis; according to
Becker, it is the appropriate form for the coordinate
propositions related by antithesis or causality.
--Gibbs.
[1913 Webster]
6. (Print.) The punctuation point [.] that marks the end of a
complete sentence, or of an abbreviated word.
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7. (Math.) 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.
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8. (Med.) The time of the exacerbation and remission of a
disease, or of the paroxysm and intermission.
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9. (Mus.) A complete musical sentence.
[1913 Webster]
10. (Sports) One of the specified time intervals into which a
game is divided; as, there are three periods in a hockey
game.
[PJC]
11. (Education) One of the specified time intervals into
which the academic day is divided; as, my calculus class
is in the first period.
[PJC]
12. The time interval during which a woman is menstruating,
or the event of a single menstruation; as, her period was
late this month.
[PJC]
The period, the present or current time, as distinguished
from all other times.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Time; date; epoch; era; age; duration; limit; bound;
end; conclusion; determination.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Period \Pe"ri*od\ (p[=e]"r[i^]*[u^]d), v. t.
To put an end to. [Obs.] --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Period \Pe"ri*od\, v. i.
To come to a period; to conclude. [Obs.] "You may period upon
this, that," etc. --Felthman.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
period
n 1: an amount of time; "a time period of 30 years"; "hastened
the period of time of his recovery"; "Picasso's blue
period" [syn: time period, period of time, period]
2: the interval taken to complete one cycle of a regularly
repeating phenomenon
3: (ice hockey) one of three divisions into which play is
divided in hockey games
4: a unit of geological time during which a system of rocks
formed; "ganoid fishes swarmed during the earlier geological
periods" [syn: period, geological period]
5: the end or completion of something; "death put a period to
his endeavors"; "a change soon put a period to my
tranquility"
6: 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 [syn: menstruation, menses, menstruum,
catamenia, period, flow]
7: 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" [syn: period, point,
full stop, stop, full point]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
389 Moby Thesaurus words for "period":
Alexandrine, Archean, Archeozoic, Cambrian, Carboniferous,
Cenozoic, Comanchean, Cretaceous, Devonian, Eocene, Glacial,
Holocene, Lower Cretaceous, Lower Tertiary, Mesozoic, Miocene,
Mississippian, Oligocene, Paleocene, Paleozoic, Pennsylvanian,
Permian, Pleistocene, Pliocene, Precambrian, Proterozoic,
Quaternary, Recent, Silurian, Tertiary, Triassic, Upper Cretaceous,
Upper Tertiary, Z, accent, accentuation, adjectival phrase, aeon,
age, amount, amphibrach, amphimacer, amplitude, anacrusis, anapest,
annual period, antinode, antispast, aphelion, apodosis, apogee,
arsis, astronomical longitude, autumnal equinox, bacchius,
baseball season, basketball season, bass passage, beat, boundary,
bourdon, bridge, burden, cadence, caesura, caliber, catalexis,
catamenia, catamenial discharge, catastrophe, ceasing,
celestial equator, celestial longitude, celestial meridian,
cessation, chloriamb, chloriambus, chorus, chronology, circle,
clause, close, closing, closure, coda, cold season, colon, colures,
comma, compass, concert season, conclusion, construction,
consummation, continuity, counterpoint, courses, crack of doom,
crest, cretic, culmination, curtain, curtains, cut, dactyl, days,
de Broglie wave, death, decease, degree, denouement, destination,
destiny, development, diaeresis, diffraction, dimeter, dipody,
discontinuance, division, dochmiac, doom, dry season, duration,
duree, ecliptic, effect, electromagnetic wave, elegiac,
elegiac couplet, elegiac pentameter, emphasis, end, end point,
ending, envoi, epilogue, epitrite, epoch, equator, equinoctial,
equinoctial circle, equinoctial colure, equinox, era, eschatology,
expiration, exposition, expression, extent, fate, feminine caesura,
figure, final solution, final twitch, final words, finale,
finality, finis, finish, flowers, folderol, foot, football season,
frequency, frequency band, frequency spectrum, full stop,
galactic longitude, geocentric longitude, geodetic longitude, goal,
grade, great circle, guided wave, harmonic close, headed group,
height, heliocentric longitude, heptameter, heptapody,
heroic couplet, hexameter, hexapody, iamb, iambic,
iambic pentameter, ictus, idiom, idiotism, in phase, interference,
interlude, intermezzo, interval, introductory phrase, ionic,
izzard, jingle, juncture, last, last breath, last gasp,
last things, last trumpet, last words, lastingness, latter end,
leap, level, light, lilt, locution, longitude, longitudinal wave,
manner of speaking, mark, masculine caesura, measure,
mechanical wave, menses, menstrual discharge, menstruation,
meridian, meter, metrical accent, metrical foot, metrical group,
metrical unit, metron, molossus, monthlies, mora, movement,
musical phrase, musical sentence, node, notch, noun phrase, nuance,
numbers, off season, omega, orbit, ornament, out of phase, paeon,
paragraph, part, pas, passage, patch, pause, payoff,
peculiar expression, peg, pentameter, pentapody, perigee,
perihelion, periodic wave, periodicity, periods, peroration,
phrasal idiom, phrase, pitch, plane, plateau, point,
proceleusmatic, proportion, psychological time, pyrrhic, quantity,
quietus, radio wave, rainy season, range, ratio, ray, reach,
refrain, reinforcement, remove, resolution, resonance,
resonance frequency, response, resting place, rhythm, ritornello,
round, rung, scale, scope, season, seasonableness, seasonality,
section, seismic wave, semicolon, sentence, set phrase, shade,
shadow, shock wave, small circle, social season, solstitial colure,
sound wave, space, space-time, span, spell, spondee, sprung rhythm,
stair, standard, standard phrase, stanza, statement, step, stint,
stop, stoppage, stopping place, strain, stress, stretch,
surface wave, swan song, swing, syntactic structure, syzygy,
tailpiece, tense, term, terminal, termination, terminus,
tetrameter, tetrapody, tetraseme, that time, the curse, the future,
the past, the present, the season, thesis, tidal wave, tide, time,
time of year, timebinding, trajectory, transverse wave, tread,
tribrach, trimeter, tripody, triseme, trochee, trough,
turn of expression, turn of phrase, tutti, tutti passage, usage,
utterance, variation, verb complex, verb phrase, verbalism,
vernal equinox, verse, wave, wave equation, wave motion,
wave number, wavelength, way of speaking, while, windup,
word-group, years, zodiac, zone
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
period
1. The time between repetitions of any cyclic event
or phenomenon such as an electromagnetic wave or planetary
orbit. Period is the reciprocal of frequency.
2. American for full stop.
(2010-07-25)