climacteric

Meanings

Adjective

• Pertaining to any of several supposedly critical years of a person's life.
• Critical or crucial; decisive.
• Relating to a period of physiological change during middle age; especially, menopausal.
• Climactic.

Noun

• A critical stage or decisive point; a turning point.
• A period in human life in which some great change is supposed to take place, calculated in different ways by different authorities (often identified as every seventh or ninth year).
• The period of life that leads up to and follows the end of menstruation in women; the menopause.

Origin

• From Latin clīmactēricus, from Koine Greek κλιμακτηρικός, from κλιμακτήρ.