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History vocabulary · Periods and Eras

Period

Meaning in history, with examples

/ˈpɪəriəd/nounCore term

In history, period means: A length of time in history that historians treat as a unit because it has its own typical features, such as the Tudor period or the Tanzimat period.

In Turkish: dönem, devir

How it is used

The most neutral word for a slice of history. We say during, in or throughout a period, and describe it as early, late, formative or transitional. Period can also work like an adjective for things from a particular time: period costume, period furniture.

Example sentences

  1. The Tanzimat period began with the Edict of Gülhane in 1839.

  2. Very few written sources survive from this period.

Common collocations

  • the early modern period
  • during this period
  • a transitional period
  • the period under study
  • period costume
  • eraA long and distinct stage of history, usually marked by an important event, ruler or change, such as the Victorian era or the Cold War era.
  • periodizationThe dividing of the past into named periods, such as antiquity and the Middle Ages, and the debate about where the boundaries between them should fall.
  • centuryA period of one hundred years; in history, usually one of the numbered hundred-year blocks of the calendar, such as the sixteenth century.
  • chronologyThe order in which events happened, or a list or table that sets out events and their dates in that order.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Periods and Eras

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