period-n; 8 Senses

Sense Number 1: a continuous span of time, a

Commentary: PERIOD[+quantity][+span][+time][+continuous]
NOTE: focus is on amount of time, measured in units of time (unlike sense 6, which is identified by a trait)
NOTE: does not imply a regular repeating amount of time. (that is what sense 7 does)

A period of 30 years passed before they met again.
For some period now Mary hasn't been returning my phone calls.
This gift certificate has no limit on the time period it is valid for.
Our vacation seemed to last such a short period.

WordNet 3.0 Sense Numbers: 1

Sense Number 2: a full stop, as a punctuation mark

Commentary: PERIOD[+form][+symbolic][+notation][+punctuation]

You should place a period at the end of this sentence.
In England they call a 'period' a 'stop'.
Death put a period to his endeavors. (figurative)
He just won't do it. Period. (figurative)

WordNet 3.0 Sense Numbers: 7, 5

Sense Number 3: a cycle, a regular and repeating event

Commentary: PERIOD[+event][+cyclic] The interval taken to complete one cycle of a regularly repeating phenomenon
NOTE: focus is on the repeating nature of the event, not how many minutes or hours it took.
NOTE: implies the event repeats on some regular basis

Seven periods of day and night constitute a week.
She is studying the up and down periods of a manic depressive. (regular, repeating intervals of behavior)
We are not currently in a period of high solar activity.
Investors take more chances during boom periods.
Those bushes were in a period of dormancy through the winter.

WordNet 3.0 Sense Numbers: 2

Sense Number 4: a regular biological process, menstruation

Commentary: PERIOD[+process][+biological][+regular][+menstruation] The monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause

Stress and illness can both cause a woman's period to be late.
Girls in her family start their periods earlier than average.
Sally worried when she missed her period.

WordNet 3.0 Sense Numbers: 6

Sense Number 5: an allotted portion of time, stipulated by some convention

Commentary: PERIOD[+time][+demarcated][+allotted][+game/+school/+business] A portion of the total allotted time for an activity, e.g., sports game (hockey) or academic class
NOTE: the allotment is set by convention, this is not true for sense 6 below, which describes external empirical factors.

The other team caught up two minutes into the period.
Suzy has study hall during third period.
The company has just entered its quiet period before the IPO. (legally defined number of weeks)
Their academic day consists of seven periods, including lunch.
My team got fifteen goals before the second period.
They are inviting beta testers to use the product for a trial period.
They managed to tie up the game before the end of the period.

WordNet 3.0 Sense Numbers: 3

Sense Number 6: a demarcated, named span of time, characterized by some salient feature

Commentary: PERIOD[+time][+span][+demarcated][+named][+historical/+geological/+personal]
NOTE: focus is on a defining trait of the time span, not the number of hours, minutes (this is sense 1)

A geological period is a subset of an era which is a subset of an eon.
The Romantic era was a period of rapid development in musical styles.
This is a novel from the Victorian period.
Mary likes Picasso's blue period the best.
His teenaged daughter has passed from her punk to her Goth period.
The Jurassic is the second period of the Mesozoic Era.
This style of statue is not characteristic of the later periods of Greek culture.
Their country is entering a period of unrest and possible civil war.

WordNet 3.0 Sense Numbers: 1, 4

Sense Number 7: a repeating numerical value

Commentary: PERIOD[+quantity][+value][+numeric][+repeating]
NOTE: a single numeric value that repeats in a predictable way.

The period of this sine function is 2 pi.
There exists no period P for an aperiodic function.
Astronomers have determined that the period of that planet around its star is only four days.
The waves in that ocean swell have a period of about 14 seconds.

WordNet 0.0 Sense Numbers: 3b

Sense Number 8: an arranged pattern, a unit of composition

Commentary: PERIOD[+form][+symbolic][+pattern][+arranged] A meaningful component of a larger scheme.

Each row in the periodic table of elements is called a period.
Cicero was a master of the rhetorical period, a sentence composed of phrases that build one upon the next.
A rhythmical unit of Greek verse composed of cola is called a period.

WordNet 0.0 Sense Numbers: 3