cli•mac•ter•ic

(klaɪˈmæk tər ɪk, ˌklaɪ mækˈtɛr ɪk)

n.

1. 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).

adj.

4. Also, cli`mac•ter′i•cal. critical; crucial.

[1595–1605; < Latin clīmactēricus < Greek klīmaktērikós, derivative of klīmaktḗr rung of a ladder, critical point in life, derivative of klîmax (see climax)]

cli`mac•ter′i•cal•ly, adv.

Mentioned in

climacteric

References in classic literature

And lastly, seated on some of the back benches, where they had already taken up their positions for the evening, were divers unmarried ladies past their grand climacteric, who, not dancing because there were no partners for them, and not playing cards lest they should be set down as irretrievably single, were in the favourable situation of being able to abuse everybody without reflecting on themselves.

View in context

The "Grand Climacteric" is the age when man raises his horizons above the carnal and the temporal to carve his niche in the pantheon.

On Notre Dame de Paris

'The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured' (Sonnet 107) is obstinately fixed at 1603 (death of Elizabeth) and not 1596 (grand climacteric) which most commentators accept.

The Hard-headed Shakespeare. (Reviews)

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