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climacteric
[ klahy-mak-ter-ik, klahy-mak-ter-ik ]
noun
- Physiology. a period of decrease of reproductive capacity in men and women, culminating, in women, in the menopause.
- any critical period.
- a year in which important changes in health, fortune, etc., are held by some theories to occur, as one's sixty-third year grand climacteric.
- the period of maximum respiration in a fruit, during which it becomes fully ripened.
adjective
- Also cli·mac·ter·i·cal [] critical; crucial.
climacteric
/ klaɪˈmæktərɪk; ˌklaɪmækˈtɛrɪk /
noun
- a critical event or period
- See menopauseanother name for menopause
- the period in the life of a man corresponding to the menopause, chiefly characterized by diminished sexual activity
- botany the period during which certain fruits, such as apples, ripen, marked by a rise in the rate of respiration
adjective
- involving a crucial event or period
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Derived Forms
- ˌclimacˈterically, adverb
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Other Words From
- climac·teri·cal·ly adverb
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Word History and Origins
Origin of climacteric1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of climacteric1
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Example Sentences
I know I am at a climacteric for all men who live by their wits, so I do not despair.
There were those who pretended that the climacteric years were fatal to political bodies as well as to individuals.
Yet the struggle for what was accomplished appears to have created a climacteric in the doer.
He was dizzily weak; collapse had quickly followed the climacteric excitement of being beside her, of speaking to her.
Lorenzo the Magnificent had been ruling Florence for many years and was then at the climacteric of his fame.
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