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Glite Dictionary
🌸 Menopause 🔄 Major transition
change of life

change of life

1 4.8
The time when a woman stops having periods and cannot have children
  • noun
  • /ˈʧeɪndʒ əv laɪf/
translation icon : cambio de vida
  • Many women experience various symptoms as they approach their change of life.
  • go through the change of life

Examples

  • The 'change of life' can be a taxing time for women, but practice nurses can provide a valuable source of evidence-based advice on when and if hormone replacement therapy might be considered.

    Academic text (2015)

  • During the change of life, some women may require support to manage their symptoms.

  • No, I'm having my change of life.

    Too Late the Hero (1970)

  • She was going through the change of life.

    Infamous (2006)

  • All women teachers will go through the change of life at some stage in their career, and by making some practical workplace changes in recognition of this, we can bring benefits to everyone in the profession, whatever their gender or age.

    Academic text (2015)

  • The attitude of male workers to the change of life can undoubtedly be a problem, according to healthtalk.org, which notes that: "Women talked about being misunderstood by younger colleagues and male co-workers."

    Academic text (2015)

  • He hinted that it had something to do with menopause (what he solemnly called "the change of life").

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The change of life marks the end of a woman's reproductive years.

Synonyms

menopause
vschange of life
62 5.2

A time in a woman's life when monthly bleeding permanently stops and she can no longer become pregnant

emphasizes the end of fertility rather than only the stoppage of periods
climacteric
vschange of life
  • Formal
9.7

The time in a woman's life when her periods stop, often in middle age

focuses on the end of fertility more than on the mere cessation of periods

Antonyms

fertility
111 3.7

A person's or animal's ability to have babies

Surface Forms

change of life singular
changes of life plural

Morphology

change + of + life

The sense 'a significant change in someone's life' is directly and compositionally derived from 'change' (a difference or alteration) + 'of' (linking) + 'life' (one's existence). This follows a common English noun phrase pattern ('change of X') and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Change of life may come from a gentle way to talk about 'menopause', the time when a woman's monthly periods stop and she can no longer have children. That's why the phrase now means 'the time when periods stop'.