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.
The ethylene producers I mention above are climacteric, as are stone fruit, pears, kiwi and mangoes.
From Washington Post • May 31, 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
The hope could be felt by those afflicted with anything from climacteric melancholia to a tendency to burp at cocktail parties.
From Time Magazine Archive
Father Spaur, though past his climacteric, was of a tall, massive build, and, I judged, of great muscular strength.
From The Courtship of Morrice Buckler A Romance by Mason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley)
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.
