Art & MusicGreek → English
Climax
The most intense, culminating point.
The Greek roots
κλῖμαξ
klîmax
ladder, staircase
Literally: “a ladder”
Follow a root:κλῖμαξ1 word
The story of the word
Rhetoricians pictured a rising 'ladder' of ideas; the top rung became the word for a peak or climax.
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
In a sentence
The story built steadily toward its climax.