— climacterically , adv.
/kluy mak"teuhr ik, kluy'mak ter"ik/ , n.
1. Physiol. 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) .
4. the period of maximum respiration in a fruit, during which it becomes fully ripened.
adj.
5. Also, climacterical /kluy'mak ter"i keuhl/ . critical; crucial.
[ 1595-1605; climactericus klimakterikós ( klimaktér rung of a ladder, critical point in life, equiv. to klimak-, s. of klîmax (see CLIMAX) + -ter n. suffix) + -ikos -IC ]