climax🔊

(rhetoric) A rhetorical device in which a series is arranged in ascending order.

(obsolete) An instance of such an ascending series.

(narratology) The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point. +

(commonly) A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series, ''particularly'':

(imprecise) The final term of a rhetorical climax.

(ecosystem) (botany) A relatively stable community of organisms, resulting from ecological succession, a successful adaptation to a relatively stable environment.

(euphemistic) The culmination of sexual pleasure, an orgasm.

To reach or bring to a climax (in any sense).

To form the climax to; to be the climax of.

(ecology) Being a {{w|climax species}} or climax community of organisms; able to remain essentially unchanged (in terms of the portion of the species in its area it constitutes) as long as its site remains unchanged.