different between climax vs intensation

English

Etymology

From Latin cl?max, from Ancient Greek ?????? (klîmax, “ladder, staircase, [rhetorical] climax”), from ????? (klín?, “I lean, slant”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: kl??-m?ks IPA^(key): /?kla?mæks/
• Rhymes: -a?mæks

Noun

climax (countable and uncountable, plural climaxes or (rare) climaces)

1. (originally rhetoric) A rhetorical device in which a series is arranged in ascending order.
2. (obsolete) An instance of such an ascending series.
   • 1781, John Moore, A view of society and manners in Italy, Vol. I, Ch. vi, p. 63:

     ...Expressions for the whole Climax of sensibility...
3. (narratology) The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.
4. (now commonly) A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series, particularly:
   • 1789, Trifler, 448, No. XXXV:

     In the accomplishment of this, they frequently reach the climax of absurdity.

   1. (rhetoric, imprecise) The final term of a rhetorical climax.
      • 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Ch. ix, p. 147:

        When he adds epithets of praise, his climax is ‘so English’.

   3. (ecology) The culmination of ecological development, whereby species are in equilibrium with their environment.
      • 1915 July 17, Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory:

        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.

   4. The culmination of sexual pleasure, an orgasm.
      • 1918, Marie Carmichael Stopes, Married love, 50:

        In many cases the man's climax comes so swiftly that the woman's reactions are not nearly ready.

Synonyms

• (rhetorical device): incrementum; (imprecise): auxesis, catacosmesis
• (culmination): See Thesaurus:apex

Antonyms

• (rhetorical device): catacosmesis

Derived terms

• climactic
• climax community
• monoclimax
• polyclimax

Related terms

• climacteric

Translations

See also

• anadiplosis

Verb

climax (third-person singular simple present climaxes, present participle climaxing, simple past and past participle climaxed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To reach or bring to a climax.
   • 2018, Craig Snyder, The Boxers of Youngstown Ohio

     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.
2. (intransitive) To orgasm; to reach orgasm.

Further reading

• climax in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• climax in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kli.maks/

Noun

climax m (uncountable)

1. climax (all senses)

Derived terms

• anteclimax
• climacique
• conclimax
• paraclimax
• peniclimax
• subclimax

Romanian

Etymology

From French climax.

Noun

climax n (plural climaxuri)

1. climax

Declension

Spanish

Noun

climax m (plural climax)

1. climax

English

Etymology

intense +? -ation

Noun

intensation (countable and uncountable, plural intensations)

1. (archaic) The act or process of intensifying; intensification; climax.
   • 1828 Thomas Carlyle, Goethe, Foreign Review

     And who will warrant us that, at the same time, he shall only be an intensation and continuation of the old, which in general, is what we long and look for?

Anagrams

• antitension