Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Climax

Cli′max (klī′măks), n. [L., from Gr. κλῖμαξ ladder, staircase, fr. κλίνειν to make to bend, to lean. See Ladder, Lean, v. i.] 1. Upward movement; steady increase; gradation; ascent. Glanvill.

2. (Rhet.) A figure in which the parts of a sentence or paragraph are so arranged that each succeeding one rises above its predecessor in impressiveness.

"Tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, and experience hope" — a happy climax. J. D. Forbes.

3. The highest point; the greatest degree.

We must look higher for the climax of earthly good. I. Taylor.

To cap the climax, to surpass everything, as in excellence or in absurdity. [Colloq.]

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.