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Webster 1913 Edition

Climax

Cli′max

,
Noun.
[L., from Gr. [GREEK] ladder, staircase, fr. [GREEK] to make to bend, to lean. See
Ladder
,
Lean
,
Verb.
I.
]
1.
Upward movement; steady increase; gradation; ascent.
Glanvill.
2.
(Rhet.)
A figure in which the parts of a sentence or paragraph are so arranged that each succeeding one rises above its predecessor in impressiveness.
“Tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, and experience hope” – a happy
climax
.
J. D. Forbes.
3.
The highest point; the greatest degree.
We must look higher for the
climax
of earthly good.
I. Taylor.
To cap the climax
,
to surpass everything, as in excellence or in absurdity.
[Colloq.]

Webster 1828 Edition

Climax

CLIMAX

, n.
1.
Gradation; ascent; a figure of rhetoric, in which a sentence rises as it were, step by step; or in which the expression which ends one member of the period, begins the second, and so on, till the period is finished; as in the following: When we have practiced good actions a while, they become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us, we do them frequently; and by frequency of acts, they grow into a habit.
2.
A sentence, or series of sentences, in which the successive members or sentences rise in force, importance or dignity, to the close of the sentence or series.

Definition 2024

climax

climax

See also: clímax

English

Noun

climax ‎(plural climaxes)

  1. (originally rhetoric) A rhetorical device in which a series is arranged in ascending order.
    • 1589, George Puttenham, The arte of English poesie, Pt. iii, Ch. xix, l. 173:
      A figure which... by his Greeke and Latine originals... may be called the marching figure... it may aswell be called the clyming figure, for Clymax is as much to say as a ladder.
  2. (obsolete) An instance of such an ascending series.
    • 1781, John Moore, A view of society and manners in Italy, Vol. I, Ch. vi, p. 63:
      ...Expressions for the whole Climax of sensibility...
  3. (now commonly) A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series, particularly:
    • 1789, Trifler, 448, No. XXXV:
      In the accomplishment of this, they frequently reach the climax of absurdity.
    1. (rhetoric, imprecise) The final term of a rhetorical climax.
      • 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Ch. ix, p. 147:
        When he adds epithets of praise, his climax is ‘so English’.
    2. (ecology) The culmination of ecological development, a stage at which point various communities of organisms are in relative equilibrium with their environment and are capable of indefinite self-perpetuation under existing conditions.
      • 1915 July 17, Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory:
        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.
    3. The culmination of sexual pleasure, an orgasm.
      • 1918, Marie Carmichael Stopes, Married love, 50:
        In many cases the man's climax comes so swiftly that the woman's reactions are not nearly ready.
    4. (narratology) The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

Verb

climax ‎(third-person singular simple present climaxes, present participle climaxing, simple past and past participle climaxed)

  1. To reach or bring to a climax
    • 2012 May 31, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Review: Snow White And The Huntsman”, in (Please provide the title of the work):
      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

External links

  • climax in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • climax in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

French

Noun

climax m ‎(uncountable)

  1. climax (all senses)

Derived terms

Spanish

Noun

climax m ‎(plural climax)

  1. climax

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • enPR: klīʹ-măks IPA(key): /ˈklaɪmæks/

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