pe·ri·od (pîŕē-əd)

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[Middle English periode, from Old French, from Medieval Latin periodus, from Latin perihodos, rhetorical period, from Greek periodos, circuit, peri-, peri-, + hodos, way.]

noun 

1. An interval of time characterized by the occurrence of a certain condition, event, or phenomenon: a period of economic prosperity.
2. An interval of time characterized by the prevalence of a specified culture, ideology, or technology: artifacts of the pre-Columbian period.
3. An interval regarded as a distinct evolutionary or developmental phase: Picasso's early career is divided into his blue period and rose period.
4. Geology A unit of time, longer than an epoch and shorter than an era.
5. Any of various arbitrary units of time, especially:
   1. Any of the divisions of the academic day.
   2. Sports & Games A division of the playing time of a game.
6. Physics & Astronomy The time interval between two successive occurrences of a recurrent event or phases of an event; a cycle: the period of a satellite's orbit.
7. An instance or occurrence of menstruation.
8. A point or portion of time at which something is ended; a completion or conclusion.
9. The full pause at the end of a spoken sentence.
10. A punctuation mark ( . ) indicating a full stop, placed at the end of declarative sentences and other statements thought to be complete, and after many abbreviations.
11. A sentence of several carefully balanced clauses in formal writing.
12. 1. A metrical unit of quantitative verse consisting of two or more cola.
    2. An analogous unit or division of classical Greek or Latin prose.
13. Music A group of two or more phrases within a composition, often made up of 8 or 16 measures and terminating with a cadence.
14. Mathematics
    1. The least interval in the range of the independent variable of a periodic function of a real variable in which all possible values of the dependent variable are assumed.
    2. A group of digits separated by commas in a written number.
    3. The number of digits that repeat in a repeating decimal. For example, = 0.142857142857 . . . has a six-digit period.
15. Chemistry A sequence of elements arranged in order of increasing atomic number and forming one of the horizontal rows in the periodic table.

adjective 

Of, belonging to, or representing a certain historical age or time: a period piece; period furniture.

interjection 

Used to emphasize finality, as when expressing a decision or an opinion: You're not going to the movies tonight, period!

synonyms:

period, epoch, era, age, term These nouns refer to a portion or length of time. Period is the most general: a short waiting period; a difficult period of my life; the Romantic period in music. Epoch refers to a period regarded as being remarkable or memorable: “We enter on an epoch of constitutional retrogression” (John R. Green) An era is a period of time notable because of new or different aspects or events: “How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book” (Henry David Thoreau) An age is usually a period marked by a distinctive characteristic: the age of Newton; the Iron Age. A term is a period of time to which limits have been set: Senators are elected for a term of six years.