climacteric

Meanings

1. Pertaining to any of several supposedly critical years of a person's life.
2. Critical or crucial; decisive.
3. Relating to a period of physiological change during middle age; especially, menopausal.
4. Climactic.
5. (of fruit) That continues to ripen after being harvested.

1. A critical stage or decisive point; a turning point.
2. 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).
3. The period of life that leads up to and follows the end of menstruation in women; the menopause.

Etymology

From Latin clīmactēricus, from Koine Greek κλιμακτηρικός (klimaktērikós), from κλιμακτήρ (klimaktḗr, “scale, progression, gradation”).