CLIMAX

Pronunciation (US):

• CLIMAX (noun)
  The noun CLIMAX has 5 senses:

1. the highest point of anything conceived of as growing or developing or unfolding
2. the decisive moment in a novel or play
3. the moment of most intense pleasure in sexual intercourse
4. the most severe stage of a disease
5. arrangement of clauses in ascending order of forcefulness

  Familiarity information: CLIMAX used as a noun is common.

• CLIMAX (verb)
  The verb CLIMAX has 1 sense:

1. end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage

  Familiarity information: CLIMAX used as a verb is very rare.

• CLIMAX (noun)

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

climax; flood tide

Context examples:

the climax of the artist's career / in the flood tide of his success

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

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

Meaning:

The decisive moment in a novel or play

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

climax; culmination

Context example:

the deathbed scene is the climax of the play

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)

Meaning:

The moment of most intense pleasure in sexual intercourse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

orgasm; sexual climax; climax; coming

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)

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)

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))

• CLIMAX (verb)

Meaning:

End, especially to reach a final or climactic stage

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

climax; culminate

Context example:

The meeting culminated in a tearful embrace

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