climax

/ˌklaɪˈmæks/

/ˈklaɪmæks/

Other forms: climaxes; climaxed; climaxing

When something — like a movie or piece of music — reaches its most important or exciting part, that's the climax. A climax is a high point.

When you're on a roller coaster and you reach the highest point, that's the climax of the ride. This word is also used often in art and entertainment. In an adventure movie, there's usually a moment near the end when there's a lot of danger, suspense, and action — a point the whole movie has been building towards. That's the climax. After a climax, tension is released and things calm down. After a climax, you probably want to say "Whew!"

Definitions of climax

1. noun

   the highest point of anything conceived of as growing or developing or unfolding
   “the climax of the artist's career”

   synonyms: flood tide

   type of:

   juncture, occasion

   an event that occurs at a critical time
2. noun

   the decisive moment in a novel or play
   “the deathbed scene is the climax of the play”

   synonyms: culmination

   type of:

   instant, minute, moment, second

   a particular point in time
3. noun

   the most severe stage of a disease
   type of:

   degree, level, point, stage

   a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process
4. noun

   the moment of most intense pleasure in sexual intercourse
   type of:

   consummation

   the act of bringing to completion or fruition
5. noun

   arrangement of clauses in ascending order of forcefulness
   type of:

   rhetorical device

   a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance)
6. verb

   end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage
   synonyms: culminate

   types:

   crown, top

   be the culminating event

   type of:

   cease, end, finish, stop, terminate

   have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical