Library / English Dictionary

CLIMAX

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The moment of most intense pleasure in sexual intercourse

Synonyms:

climax; coming; orgasm; sexual climax

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("climax" is a kind of...):

consummation (the act of bringing to completion or fruition)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "climax"):

male orgasm (an orgasm accompanied by the sensation of ejaculation of semen)

Derivation:

climactic (consisting of or causing a climax)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The decisive moment in a novel or play

Example:

the deathbed scene is the climax of the play

Synonyms:

climax; culmination

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("climax" is a kind of...):

instant; minute; moment; second (a particular point in time)

Holonyms ("climax" is a part of...):

story (a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events)

Derivation:

climactic (consisting of or causing a climax)

climax (end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Arrangement of clauses in ascending order of forcefulness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("climax" is a kind of...):

rhetorical device (a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance))

Sense 4

Meaning:

The highest point of anything conceived of as growing or developing or unfolding

Example:

in the flood tide of his success

Synonyms:

climax; flood tide

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("climax" is a kind of...):

juncture; occasion (an event that occurs at a critical time)

Derivation:

climactic (consisting of or causing a climax)

climax (end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The most severe stage of a disease

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("climax" is a kind of...):

degree; level; point; stage (a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process)

Derivation:

climactic (consisting of or causing a climax)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

End, especially to reach a final or climactic stage

Example:

The meeting culminated in a tearful embrace

Synonyms:

climax; culminate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "climax" is one way to...):

cease; end; finish; stop; terminate (have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "climax"):

crown; top (be the culminating event)

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

climax (the decisive moment in a novel or play)

climax (the highest point of anything conceived of as growing or developing or unfolding)

Credits