When a woman or a female animal ovulates, her body releases a mature egg from an ovary. In humans this usually happens about once a month, in the middle of the menstrual cycle — though actually the timing is not a perfect clock, and stress, illness, and some medicines can move it or stop it. Ovulating is not the same as being pregnant, and it is not the same as having a period. The period is the lining of the womb leaving the body if that egg was not used. People say the word in health class, at the doctor’s, and in apps that track a cycle. It is a biology word, not a rude word, but it is private-body talk, so we use it carefully and kindly.

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