What does "semester" mean?

Half of a school year (US) or academic year such as autumn or spring semester.

Semester

Common synonyms include: abundant year, academic year, annum, bissextile year, calendar month, calendar year.

/sɪˈmɛstə/ noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Noun

1
Half of a school year (US) or academic year such as autumn or spring semester.
"I will graduate at the end of the spring semester."
2
half a year; a period of 6 months wordnet
3
A period or term of six months.
4
one of two divisions of an academic year wordnet

"Because of Linda's outstanding grades last semester, I have arranged for her to visit Europe."

From German Semester, from New Latin sēmestris (“lasting six months”), from sex (“six”) + mēnsis (“month”).