climax

1. (originally rhetoric) A rhetorical device in which a series is arranged in ascending order.Examples: "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,[…]"; "Climax, by steps advancing, onward goes Higher and still more high to an impassion'd close."Synonyms: incrementumcountableuncountable

2. (obsolete) An instance of such an ascending series.Examples: "[…]Expressions for the whole Climax of sensibility[…]"; "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!"countableobsoleteuncountable

3. (narratology) The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.Examples: "As a trafficker in climaxes and thrills and characterization and wonderful dialogue and suspense and confrontations, I had outlined the Dresden story many times."Synonyms: auxesiscountableuncountable

4. (now often) A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series, particularly:Examples: "In the accomplishment of this, they frequently reach the climax of absurdity."countableoftenuncountable

5. (now often) A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series, particularly:Examples: "When he adds epithets of praise, his climax is ‘so English’."countableoftenrhetoricuncountable

6. (now often) A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series, particularly:Examples: "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."countableoftenuncountable