Climacteric comes from the Greek word klimaktēr, meaning "critical point" or, literally, "rung of a ladder." English speakers have long used climacteric for those inevitable big moments encountered on the metaphorical ladder of life. The major climacterics in a person’s life were once thought to happen in years denoted by multiples of 7 or 9 or only in the odd multiples of 7 (7, 21, 35, etc.). The grand (or great) climacteric was held to occur in the 63rd (7 x 9) or the 81st (9 x 9) year of life. Today, climacteric can refer to male or female menopause, which typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, but the general "turning point" sense is not usually tied to a specific age.

Examples of climacteric in a Sentence

Adjective as the war reached its climacteric phase, the atrocities dramatically increased, both in number and brutality Noun historians attempting to pinpoint the Roman Empire's climacteric, that precise moment when it began its long downhill slide

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective Macerating unripe climacteric fruit in sugar, however, isn’t a substitute for ripening them; that just takes time in your kitchen counter’s fruit basket. — Bill St. John, The Denver Post, "Get Cooking: Macerating fruit," 8 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'climacteric.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.