climacteric Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a period in a man's life corresponding to menopause
  2. noun the time in a woman's life in which the menstrual cycle ends
    change of life; menopause.

WordNet

Cli*mac"ter*ic adjective
Etymology
L. climactericus, Gr. . See Climacter.
Definitions
  1. Relating to a climacteric; critical.
Cli*mac"ter*ic noun
Definitions
  1. A period in human life in which some great change is supposed to take place in the constitution. The critical periods are thought by some to be the years produced by multiplying 7 into the odd numbers 3, 5, 7, and 9; to which others add the 81st year.
  2. Any critical period.
    It is your lot, as it was mine, to live during one of the grand climacterics of the world. Southey.
    I should hardly yield my rigid fibers to be regenerated by them; nor begin, in my grand climacteric, to squall in their new accents, or to stammer, in my second cradle, the elemental sounds of their barbarous metaphysics. Burke.

Webster 1913