Word.ws English Dictionary

critical period

critical period noun: a maturational stage in the lifespan of an organism during which the nervous system is especially sensitive to certain environmental stimuli.

Noun

critical period (plural critical periods)

  1. A maturational stage in the lifespan of an organism during which the nervous system is especially sensitive to certain environmental stimuli.
  2. According to a disputed hypothesis, the limited period — before reaching a certain age — in which a person can achieve native-like fluency in a language.

Forms of critical period

pluralcritical periods

Questions about critical period

What does critical period mean?
Critical period means a maturational stage in the lifespan of an organism during which the nervous system is especially sensitive to certain environmental stimuli.
What part of speech is critical period?
Critical period is a noun.
What is the plural of critical period?
The plural of critical period is critical periods.

Words near critical period in the dictionary

  1. critical micelle concentration
  2. critical micelle concentrations
  3. critical opalescence
  4. critical path
  5. critical paths
  6. critical period
  7. critical periods
  8. critical philosophy
  9. critical point
  10. critical point drying
  11. critical points

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: critical period (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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