climax

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The most exciting or important point of an event, story, or career.

   The final battle was the climax of the entire film.

2. 2
   noun

   The turning point in a story or play, where the tension is highest.

   The deathbed scene is the climax of the play.

3. 3
   verb

   To reach the most intense or final stage.

   The plot climaxed with a ten-minute action sequence.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Climax comes from Greek klimax, “ladder,” and was first used in 16th-century rhetoric for a series of propositions increasing in force or effectiveness. The general sense “culmination” arose in the late 18th century through popular reinterpretation of the learned term, and the sexual sense is recorded from the late 19th century.

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

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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