Climax

Pronunciation

• enPR: klīʹ-măks IPA: /ˈklaɪmæks/

Origin

From Latin clīmax, from Ancient Greek κλῖμαξ (klimaks, "a ladder, a staircase, a climax in rhetoric"), from κλίνω (klinō, "I lean, slant").

Full definition of climax

Noun

1. The point of greatest intensity or force in an ascending series; a culmination
• 1949, Bruce Kiskaddon, George R. Stewart, Earth_AbidesThe snowshoe-rabbits build up through the years until they reach a climax when the seem to be everywhere; then with dramatic suddenness their pestilence falls upon them.
2. The turning point in a plot or in dramatic action, especially one marking a change in the protagonist's affairs.

1. (slang) An orgasm.
2. (rhetoric) Ordering of terms in increasing order of importance or magnitude.
3. (rhetoric) Anadiplosis.

Synonyms

Coordinate terms

• (order by increasing importance) catacosmesis

Derived terms

• climactic
• climax community

Related terms

• climacteric

Verb

1. To reach or bring to a climax
• 2012, May 31, Tasha Robinson, Film: Review: Snow White And The Huntsman, Huntsman starts out with a vision of Theron that’s specific, unique, and weighted in character, but it trends throughout toward generic fantasy tropes and black-and-white morality, and climaxes in a thoroughly familiar face-off.
2. To orgasm; to reach orgasm