climax
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
klymaksSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈklaɪmæks
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
narratology
The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.
now often
A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series, particularly
A minor city in Greenwood County, Kansas.
A minor city in Polk County, Minnesota.
A number of places in the United States
verb
To form the climax to; to be the climax of.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (narratology) The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.
Used this way, climax is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use climax
- “The deathbed scene is the climax of the play.”noun
- “The climax of the artist's career.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The moment of most intense pleasure in sexual intercourse.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.