climacteric
noun
[ klʌɪˈmakt(ə)rɪk ]
• a critical period or event.
• "the first major climacteric in twentieth-century poetry"
• the period of life when fertility and sexual activity are in decline; (in women) menopause.
• "most women do not experience significant psychological problems at the climacteric"
• the ripening period of certain fruits such as apples, involving increased metabolism and only possible while still on the tree.
• "ripening accompanied by a sharp rise in respiration, the so-called climacteric"
climacteric
adjective
• having extreme and far-reaching implications or results; critical.
• "Britain must possess so climacteric a weapon in order to deter an atomically armed enemy"
• occurring at, characteristic of, or undergoing the climacteric; (in women) menopausal.
• "every year adds new symptoms to climacteric syndrome"
• (of a fruit) undergoing a climacteric.
• "it doesn't ripen off the tree, being a climacteric fruit"
Origin:
mid 16th century (in the sense ‘constituting a critical period in life’): from French climactérique or via Latin from Greek klimaktērikos, from klimaktēr ‘critical period’, from klimax ‘ladder, climax’.
