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climactic

climactic

15 6.0
Happening at the most exciting or important part of something
  • adjective
  • /klaɪˈmæktɪk/
translation icon : culminante
  • The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution.
  • a climactic moment
  • a climactic scene
  • a climactic stage

Sorry it wasn't as climactic as I was hoping.

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Examples

  • It's just marvelous that I now have such a climactic ending to my film.

  • The student teaching internship has been viewed as a climactic experience in teacher education programs.

    Academic text (2003)
  • A climactic end to the affair!

  • And that's what's going to bring us to the final push and the climactic moment in the movie.

  • The climactic line in the novella is he realises that he had lived his life wrong.

  • The third film reaches its three-way climactic battle: the two human factions and the Na'vi.

    Blog text (25)
  • The congregation is on its feet chanting the AVINU MALKENU, the climactic prayer of the day.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • The climactic event of my academic career is in two hours.

  • The student teaching internship has been viewed as a climactic experience in teacher education programs.

Synonyms

culminant
vsclimactic
9.3

Reaching the highest or most important point in a process

relates to the final most intense or important part rather than the reaching action

Antonyms

54 1.9

Not worth attention or notice

10 7.3

Less exciting than expected and disappointing

How Intense

climactic
15 6.0
dramatic
358 3.6
exciting
1.0
noticeable
65 3.2
mild
107 1.0

Surface Forms

climactic positive

Morphology

climactic = climax (transparent) = climax + ic

The adjective is directly formed from 'climax' + the productive suffix '-ic' meaning 'relating to or characterized by the climax'.

Etymology

The word climactic comes from climax, from a Greek word klimax that meant 'ladder' or 'top step', so you can picture reaching the highest point. That's why something climactic is the most intense or important part of a story or event.