climax

Etymology

From Latin clīmax, from Ancient Greek κλῖμαξ (klîmax, “ladder, staircase, [rhetorical] climax”), from κλίνω (klínō, “I lean, slant”).

noun

1. (originally rhetoric) A rhetorical device in which a series is arranged in ascending order.
   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,[…] 1589 June, George Puttenham, chapter 19, in Edward Arber, editor, The Arte of English Poesie, volume 3, London, published 1869, page 217
2. (obsolete) An instance of such an ascending series.
   […]Expressions for the whole Climax of sensibility[…] 1781, John Moore, chapter VI, in A view of society and manners in Italy, volume I, page 63
   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! 1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, no. 170, Market Street, published 1808, →OCLC, page 474
3. (narratology) The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.
4. (now often) A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series
   1. (rhetoric, imprecise) The final term of a rhetorical climax.
      When he adds epithets of praise, his climax is ‘so English’. 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, chapter IX, in English Traits, page 147
   2. (ecology) The culmination of ecological development, whereby species are in equilibrium with their environment.
      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. July 17, 1915, Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory
   3. (euphemistic) The culmination of sexual pleasure, an orgasm.
      In many cases the man's climax comes so swiftly that the woman's reactions are not nearly ready. 1918, Marie Carmichael Stopes, Married love, section 50

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To reach or bring to a climax (in any sense).
   Huntsman starts out with a vision of Theron that’s specific, unique, and weighted in character, but it trends throughout toward generic fantasy tropes and black-and-white morality, and climaxes in a thoroughly familiar face-off. May 31, 2012, Tasha Robinson, “Snow White And The Huntsman”, in AV Club
   Frank had two bouts in October of 1954, losing them both, and then climaxed his career with a 6-round decision victory over Mickey Warner on December 1, 1954. 2018, Craig Snyder, The Boxers of Youngstown Ohio
   I have never been able to climax during sex. Is my masturbation style to blame? [title] 2023-05-30, Pamela Stephenson Connolly, “I have never been able to climax during sex. Is my masturbation style to blame?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN