<p><strong>Noun:</strong></p><ul><li>A period of decrease of reproductive capacity in men and women, culminating, in women, in the menopause.</li><li>Any critical period.</li><li>A year in which important changes in health, fortune, etc., are held by some theories to occur, as one's sixty-third year.</li><li>The period of maximum respiration in a fruit, during which it becomes fully ripened.</li></ul><p><strong>Adjective:</strong></p><ul><li>Also cli·mac·ter·i·cal: critical; crucial.</li></ul>