How to use period in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, adjective, interjection

Period means a length of time. Example: “There was a period of confusion following the announcement.”

Examples of period by meaning

nounA length of time.

There was a period of confusion following the announcement.
You'll be on probation for a six-month period.
Philip Miles, defending, said: "This was a single instance, there was no allegation of continuing behaviour over a long period of time."2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian

nounA length of time in history seen as a single coherent entity; an epoch, era.

Food rationing continued in the post-war period.
Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
Sung Yung-hsi of Ch’u-hsiung was a government student during the Chia-ch’ing period.1962, Chung-li Chang, The Income of the Chinese Gentry, Seattle: University of Washington Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 235

nounThe punctuation mark “.” (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).

‘You know, a period?2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 299

nounFemale menstruation; an episode of this.

When she is on her period, she prefers not to go swimming.

nounA section of an artist's, writer's (etc.) career distinguished by a given quality, preoccupation etc.

This is one of the last paintings Picasso created during his Blue Period.

nounEach of the divisions into which a school day is split, allocated to a given subject or activity.

I have math class in second period.

nounEach of the intervals, typically three, of which a game is divided.

Gretzky scored in the last minute of the second period.

nounOne or more additional intervals to decide a tied game, an overtime period.

They won in the first overtime period.

More sentences with period

The period immediately following my divorce seemed like the end of my world.From the entry world
Swollen breasts, morning sickness, and a missed period are classic symptoms of pregnancy.From the entry symptom
I would class this with most of the other mediocre works of the period.From the entry class
The Maunder minimum of the Sun reportedly corresponded to a period of great cold on Earth.From the entry minimum
The modern British oligarchy—particularly during periods of Tory rule—has been called a chumocracy.From the entry oligarchy
Income must be reported in the period in which it is earned, whenever payment is actually received.From the entry whenever
Your account will be suspended for an indefinite period of time.From the entry indefinite
The honeymoon period came to a swift end when the legislation was introduced.From the entry honeymoon
The museum curator said that the sword originated from the Yamato period in Japan.From the entry Yamato
During the colonial period, Britain used Canada as a major source of furs.From the entry fur
The Victorian era is a later period of English history than the Elizabethan era.From the entry later
During the interwar period, fascists proposed class collaboration as a response to communist class struggle.From the entry collaboration
Jack had dozens of miniatures of Napoleonic footsoldiers painted in detailed period regalia for his wargames.From the entry miniature
I came out after a period of difficulty in my life.From the entry come out
The language was wrong for the period, but, on the whole, I enjoyed the film.From the entry on the whole
Forgetting to finish a sentence with a period is one of my pet peeves.From the entry pet peeve
I don't believe I have to nursemaid these two rookies through their entire probationary period.From the entry nursemaid
The law in Massachusetts mandates a nisi period before divorce by decree nisi.From the entry nisi
After a 10-day observation period, group 1 was divided into subgroup 1A (symptomatics) and subgroup 1B (asymptomatics).From the entry asymptomatic
In first period, we're going over the basics of cell biology.From the entry go over
Heat sterilization is used during canning so the food can be safely stored for long periods.From the entry sterilization
The upper Palaeolithic period saw the first production of microblade tools.From the entry microblade
The government will phase in the new education system over a period of three years.From the entry phase in
The accountant was found to have misappropriated funds over a period of three years.From the entry misappropriate
MIS 3 is used to refer to the period between 57 and 70 thousand years ago.From the entry MIS
He said that, had it not still been my honeymoon period, I would have been fired.From the entry honeymoon period
After the trial period, she was asked to stay on and work full-time.From the entry stay on
This great astronomer had discovered the orbitational periods of Jupiter and Mars.From the entry orbitational

Meaning of period

noun A length of time.
noun A length of time in history seen as a single coherent entity; an epoch, era.
noun The punctuation mark “.” (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).

Full definition of period

Questions about period in a sentence

How do you use period in a sentence?: Period is used as a noun, adjective and interjection. For example: “There was a period of confusion following the announcement.”
What is a short sentence with period?: “‘You know, a period?”
What does period mean?: Period means a length of time.

Adapted from Wiktionary: period (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use period in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/period. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.