Climax Meaning
/ˈklaɪ.mæks/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA rhetorical device in which a series is arranged in ascending order.
nounAn instance of such an ascending series.
Sentence Examples
The audience sobbed throughout the climax of the movie.
The game came to a climax.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The movie's ____ revealed the hero's true identity to everyone.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The story reaches an exciting ____ when the hero finally discovers the hidden treasure.
Word Origin & History
From Latin clīmax, from Ancient Greek κλῖμαξ (klîmax, “ladder, staircase, [rhetorical] climax”), from κλίνω (klínō, “to lean, slant”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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,[…]"
— 1589 June, George Puttenham, chapter 19, in Edward Arber, editor, The Arte of English Poesie, volume 3, London, published 1869, page 217:
"Climax, by steps advancing, onward goes
Higher and still more high to an impassion'd close."
— 1835, L[arret] Langley, “[Rhetorical Figures.] Climax.”, in A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster, South Yorkshire: […] C. White, […], →OCLC, page 26:
"[…]Expressions for the whole Climax of sensibility[…]"
— 1781, John Moore, chapter VI, in A view of society and manners in Italy, volume I, page 63:
"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!"
— 1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, no. 170, Market Street, published 1808, →OCLC, page 474:
"As a trafficker in climaxes and thrills and characterization and wonderful dialogue and suspense and confrontations, I had outlined the Dresden story many times."
— 1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., chapter 1, in Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 4:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The movie's ____ revealed the hero's true identity to everyone.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The story reaches an exciting ____ when the hero finally discovers the hidden treasure.