climacteric

American  

[klahy-mak-ter-ik, klahy-mak-ter-ik] / klaɪˈmæk tər ɪk, ˌklaɪ mækˈtɛr ɪk /

noun

1. Physiology. a period of decrease of reproductive capacity in men and women, culminating, in women, in the menopause.

2. any critical period.

3. 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.

4. the period of maximum respiration in a fruit, during which it becomes fully ripened.

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adjective

1. Also climacterical critical; crucial.

climacteric British  

/ ˌklaɪmækˈtɛrɪk, klaɪˈmæktərɪk /

noun

1. a critical event or period

2. another name for menopause

3. the period in the life of a man corresponding to the menopause, chiefly characterized by diminished sexual activity

4. botany the period during which certain fruits, such as apples, ripen, marked by a rise in the rate of respiration

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adjective

1. involving a crucial event or period

Other Word Forms

Derived 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 ( see climax) + -tēr noun suffix) + -ikos -ic