climacteric
Americannoun
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Physiology. a period of decrease of reproductive capacity in men and women, culminating, in women, in the menopause.
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any critical period.
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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.
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the period of maximum respiration in a fruit, during which it becomes fully ripened.
adjective
noun
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a critical event or period
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another name for menopause
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the period in the life of a man corresponding to the menopause, chiefly characterized by diminished sexual activity
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botany the period during which certain fruits, such as apples, ripen, marked by a rise in the rate of respiration
adjective
Other Word Forms
- climacterically adverb
Etymology
Origin of climacteric
1595–1605; < Latin clīmactēricus < Greek klīmaktērikós ( klīmaktḗr rung of a ladder, critical point in life, equivalent to klīmak-, stem of klîmax ( climax ) + -tēr noun suffix) + -ikos -ic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tomatoes are climacteric, meaning they will continue to ripen after they are picked.
From Washington Post • Jul. 11, 2022
In climacteric fruit, starch continues to be turned into sugar, improving texture and flavor, according to the Michigan State University Extension, which offers extremely helpful charts on all these categories.
From Washington Post • May 31, 2022
“The climacteric marks the end of apologising. The chrysalis of conditioning has once and for all to break and the female woman finally to emerge.”
From The Guardian • Aug. 11, 2018
He neglected to state that middle-aged men frequently suffer the miseries of the male climacteric.
From Time Magazine Archive
To find him now a guest entertained under the roof he had striven to injure, brought the Essene's temper up to a climacteric point.
From Saul of Tarsus A Tale of the Early Christians by Miller, Elizabeth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
