periodical
Americannoun
adjective
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published at regularly recurring intervals.
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of or relating to such publications.
noun
adjective
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of or relating to such publications
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published at regular intervals
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periodic or occasional
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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periodicalismnoun
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periodicalistnoun
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periodicalnessnoun
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nonperiodicaladjective
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unperiodicaladjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of periodical
First recorded in 1595–1605; periodic 1 + -al 1
Explanation
If your weekend ritual includes reading the Sunday paper from front to back and then comparing stories in the latest celebrity gossip magazines, you appreciate periodicals, publications that come out on a regular basis. The word periodical is related to period, as in a certain length of time. Periodicals are published with regular lengths of time between issues and are described by that length of time, whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual. They may be meant for a general audience like the ones you find on the magazine stand in the airport, or they may be more specialized for readers with specific interests, such as The Journal of the Society for Penguin Appreciation or Window Washer Gazette.
Vocabulary lists containing periodical
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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.
See Examples For:
An entire notebook is devoted to The Spectator, a daily periodical that ran for 555 issues between 1711 and 1712 commenting on the manners and fads of London society.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2025
This trend is seen with periodical comic books too, with only four franchises outside of Marvel and DC able to crack the top 50 comics of 2024.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2025
This language continued through the 1860s, as evidenced by texts such as pro-slavery advocate J. Quitman Moore’s article in the Southern periodical De Bow’s Review titled “Feudalism in America.”
From Salon ● Nov. 10, 2024
“I can’t imagine, given the fact that periodical cicadas are national news, that we won’t have guests both local and from outside New Orleans, asking us about that,” said Lemann.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 18, 2024
Just before Christmas, London’s leading spiritual periodical published an article, “Mediumship of a Baby.”
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
We learn that Renoir’s scenes of contemporary life often served as illustrations for books and periodicals, and discover the influence of the requirements of reproduction on his technique.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 20, 2025
By the time the annual cicadas come out, the periodicals are long dead.
From Salon ● May 16, 2024
Eno is also a voracious reader of scientific periodicals, and says the advances being made on climate change are another reason to feel hopeful, even if they rarely penetrate the mainstream.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2024
Before World, a biweekly, was launched in 1986, religious periodicals were often cheaply mimeographed and filled with church news.
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
The rest of the day he would devote to reading various periodicals and library books.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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.
