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period
- 1) noun, a portion of time of indefinable length
- 2) noun, a) a portion of time specified in some way b) (as modifier)
- 3) noun, a nontechnical name for an occurrence of menstruation
- 4) noun, geology a unit of geological time during which a system of rocks is formed
- 5) noun, a division of time, esp of the academic day
- 6) noun, physics maths a) the time taken to complete one cycle of a regularly recurring phenomenon; the reciprocal of frequency. Symbol: T b) an interval in which the values of a periodic function follow a certain pattern that is duplicated over successive intervals
- 7) noun, astronomy a) the time required by a body to make one complete rotation on its axis b) the time interval between two successive maxima or minima of light variation of a variable star
- 8) noun, chem one of the horizontal rows of elements in the periodic table. Each period starts with an alkali metal and ends with a rare gas. Compare group
- 9) noun, the punctuation mark (.) used at the end of a sentence that is not a question or exclamation, after abbreviations, etc. Also called: full stop
- 10) noun, a complete sentence, esp a complex one with several clauses
- 11) noun, music a passage or division of a piece of music, usually consisting of two or more contrasting or complementary musical phrases and ending on a cadence. Also called: sentence
- 12) noun, (in classical prosody) a unit consisting of two or more cola
- 13) noun, a completion or end
Etymology
C14 peryod, from Latin periodus, from Greek periodos circuit, from peri- + hodos way
Collins English Electronic Dictionary - Digital Edition: 2008 © HarperCollins Publishers 2008
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Synonyms
time, time, date, term, season, space, run, stretch, spell, phase, patch (Brit. informal), interval, span, age, generation, year, days, term, stage, cycle, era, epoch, aeon