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单词 climax
释义

climax

See also: clímax and Climax

English

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): /ˈklaɪ.mæks/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪmæks

Noun

climax (countable and uncountable, plural climaxes or (rare) climaces)

  1. (originally rhetoric) A rhetorical device in which a series is arranged in ascending order.
    • 1589 June, George Puttenham, chapter 19, in Edward Arber, editor, The Arte of English Poesie‎, volume 3, London, published 1869, page 217:
      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, […]
    • [1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, OCLC 1062248511, page 26:
      Climax, by steps advancing, onward goes
      Higher and still more high to an impassion'd close.      ]
  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...
    • 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 230944105, page 474:
      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. (narratology) The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.
    • 1969, Kurt Vonnegut, chapter 1, in Slaughterhouse-Five […] , page 4:
      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. (now often) 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, whereby species are in equilibrium with their environment.
      • 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. (euphemistic) 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.

Synonyms

  • (rhetorical device): incrementum; (imprecise): auxesis, catacosmesis
  • (culmination): See Thesaurus:apex

Antonyms

  • (rhetorical device): catacosmesis

Derived terms

  • climactic
  • climax community
  • monoclimax
  • polyclimax
  • climacteric

Translations

See also

  • anadiplosis

Verb

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

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To reach or bring to a climax (in any sense).
    • 2018, Craig Snyder, The Boxers of Youngstown Ohio
      Frank had two bouts in October of 1954, losing them both, and then climaxed his career with a 6-round decision victory over Mickey Warner on December 1, 1954.
    • 2012 May 31, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Review: Snow White And The Huntsman”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:
      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.

Further reading

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

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kli.maks/
  • Audio(file)

Noun

climax m (uncountable)

  1. climax (all senses)

Derived terms

  • anteclimax
  • climacique
  • conclimax
  • paraclimax
  • peniclimax
  • subclimax

Further reading

  • “climax”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Romanian

Etymology

From French climax.

Noun

climax n (plural climaxuri)

  1. climax

Declension

Declension of climax
singularplural
indefinite articulationdefinite articulationindefinite articulationdefinite articulation
nominative/accusative(un) climaxclimaxul(niște) climaxuriclimaxurile
genitive/dative(unui) climaxclimaxului(unor) climaxuriclimaxurilor
vocativeclimaxuleclimaxurilor

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kliˈmaɡs/ [kliˈmaɣ̞s]
  • Rhymes: -aɡs
  • Syllabification: cli‧max

Noun

climax m (plural climax)

  1. climax
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