menarche

First attested 1900, from German Menarche, formed from meno- +‎ -arche.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɛˈnɑː.ki/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛˌnɑɹ.ki/, /məˈnɑɹ.ki/

• Audio (US):

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menarche (plural menarches)

1. The onset of menstruation; a girl's first period.

   Synonym: menophania

   Antonym: menopause

   Coordinate terms: spermarche, thelarche

   • 1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise:

     How old is she? Nine? Ten? The menarche is not far off – a hint of a bosom, poor child.

   • 1978, Benjamin Walker, Encyclopedia of Metaphysical Medicine, Routledge, page 252:

     The most potent and indeed dangerous of all menstrual blood was the menarche, the first day's flow of the first menstruation of a virgin girl.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 102:

     Initiation is imagined, but the initiate is not the young girl in menarche, about to be wed to the moon, but a young man about to become a great hunter.

• menarche on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Hermance

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• Hyphenation: me‧nar‧che

menarche c (plural menarches, no diminutive)

1. menarche

Internationalism (see English menarche).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [mɛˈnar.kʰeː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [meˈnar.ke]

menarchē f (genitive menarchēs); first declension

1. (medical) menarche

First-declension noun (feminine, Greek-type, nominative singular in -ē).