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CLIMACTERIC (from the Gr. KAupaKr'Jp, the rung or step of a aXiµaE or ladder)
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CLIMACTERIC (from the Gr. KAupaKr'Jp, the rung or step of a aXiµaE or ladder), a critical period in human life; in a medical sense, the period known as the " change of life," marked in women by the menopause. Certain ages, especially those which are multiples of seven or nine, have been superstitiously regarded as particularly critical; thus the sixty-third and the eighty-first year of life have been called the " grand climacteric." The word is also used, generally, of any turning-point in the history of a nation, a career or the like.