period
$ \mathrm{period}^1 /ˈpɪəriəd/
length of time
1 a particular length of time
a long/an extended period
a short/brief period
period of something
a period of transition/uncertainty/expansion
a period of two years/six months/four weeks
a two-year/six-month/four-week period
All these changes happened over a period of time.
A year-to-year lease has no fixed time period.
for a period
The offer is available for a limited period only.
This compares with a 4% increase for the same period last year.
The project will run for a six-month trial period.
over a period
The hall will be closed over a 2-year period.
during a period
We know little of her life during that period.
The aim is to reduce traffic at peak periods.
Tomorrow will be cold with sunny periods.
e.g.
2 a length of time in the life of a particular person or in the history of a particular country
Which period of history would you most like to have lived in?
This textbook covers the post-war period.
The church dates from the Norman period.
We are currently studying the early medieval period.
Like Picasso, she too had a blue period.
Most teenagers go through a period of rebelling.
e.g.
3 (geology) a length of time which is a division of an era. A period is divided into epochs.
the Jurassic period
Dinosaurs died out during the Cretaceous period.
Collocations
adjective
verb + period
period + verb
period + noun
preposition
phrases
lesson
4 any of the parts that a day is divided into at a school, college, etc. for study
‘What do you have next period?’ ‘French.’
a free/study period (= for private study)
e.g.
woman
5 the flow of blood each month from the body of a woman who is not pregnant
period pains
monthly periods
When did you last have a period?
Collocations
adjective
verb + period
period + verb
period + noun
punctuation
6 (North American English) (British English full stop) the mark ( . ) used at the end of a sentence and in some abbreviations, for example e.g.
$ \mathrm{period}^2 /ˈpɪəriəd/
having a style typical of a particular time in history
period costumes/furniture
$ \mathrm{period}^3 /ˈpɪəriəd/
(especially North American English)
(British English also full stop)
(informal)
used at the end of a sentence to emphasize that there is nothing more to say about a subject
The answer is no, period!
Word Origin
late Middle English (denoting the time during which something, especially a disease, runs its course): from Old French periode, via Latin from Greek periodos ‘orbit, recurrence, course’, from peri- ‘around’ + hodos ‘way, course’. The sense ‘portion of time’ dates from the early 17th cent.