climax

name

1. A village in the Rural Municipality of Lone Tree No. 18, Saskatchewan, Canada.
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noun

Etymology: From Latin clīmax, from Ancient Greek κλῖμαξ (klîmax, “ladder, staircase, [rhetorical] climax”), from κλίνω (klínō, “to lean, slant”).

1. A rhetorical device in which a series is arranged in ascending order.

   “Ye haue a figure which as well by his Greeke and Latine originals […] may be called the marching figure […] and goeth as it were by ſtrides or paces; it may aſwell by called the clyming figure, for Clymax is as much to ſay as a ladder,[…]”

   “Climax, by steps advancing, onward goes Higher and still more high to an impassion'd close.”

2. An instance of such an ascending series.

   “[…]Expressions for the whole Climax of sensibility[…]”

   “The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!”

3. The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.

   “As a trafficker in climaxes and thrills and characterization and wonderful dialogue and suspense and confrontations, I had outlined the Dresden story many times.”

4. A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series, particularly

   “In the accomplishment of this, they frequently reach the climax of absurdity.”

5. A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series

   “When he adds epithets of praise, his climax is ‘so English’.”

6. A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series

   “The succession of associations leading to a climax represents the process of adjustment to the conditions of stress, and the climax represents a condition of relative equilibrium. Climax associations[…] are the resultants of certain climatic, geological[…] conditions.”

7. A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series

   “In many cases the man's climax comes so swiftly that the woman's reactions are not nearly ready.”

   “What's the use of bringing some high schooler to climax?”

verb

Etymology: From Latin clīmax, from Ancient Greek κλῖμαξ (klîmax, “ladder, staircase, [rhetorical] climax”), from κλίνω (klínō, “to lean, slant”).

1. To reach or bring to a climax (in any sense).

   “All our memories are burning in time / Like a bittersweet perfume / Can you tell me how a love that's so fine / Could have climaxed in a single afternoon?”

   “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 form the climax to; to be the climax of.

   “A group of about 50 people, mostly young adults and teenagers, charged into a city park where gay people were having a swimming party on June 8. Gay people were attacked, climaxing a year in which this conservative Ohio city [Cincinnati] has become aware of its gay population.”