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Climax vs Catastrophe - What's the difference?

climax | catastrophe |

As nouns the difference between climax and catastrophe

is that climax is the point of greatest intensity or force in an ascending series; a culmination while catastrophe is any large and disastrous event of great significance.

As a verb climax

is to reach or bring to a climax.

climax

English

Noun

(es)
  • The point of greatest intensity or force in an ascending series; a culmination
  • * 1949 , Bruce Kiskaddon, George R. Stewart,
  • The snowshoe-rabbits build up through the years until they reach a climax when the seem to be everywhere; then with dramatic suddenness their pestilence falls upon them.
  • The turning point in a plot or in dramatic action, especially one marking a change in the protagonist's affairs.
  • (ecosystem)(label) A stage of ecological development in which a community of organisms is stable and capable of perpetuating itself.
  • (slang) An orgasm.
  • (rhetoric) Ordering of terms in increasing order of importance or magnitude.
  • (rhetoric) Anadiplosis.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Coordinate terms

    * (order by increasing importance) catacosmesis

    Derived terms

    * climactic * climax community

    Verb

    (es)
  • To reach or bring to a climax
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=May 31 , author=Tasha Robinson , title=Film: Review: Snow White And The Huntsman citation , page= , passage=Huntsman starts out with a vision of Theron that’s specific, unique, and weighted in character, but it trends throughout toward generic fantasy tropes and black-and-white morality, and climaxes in a thoroughly familiar face-off. }}
  • To orgasm; to reach orgasm
  • catastrophe

    Alternative forms

    * (now rare) *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any large and disastrous event of great significance.
  • (insurance) A disaster beyond expectations
  • (narratology) The dramatic event that initiates the resolution of the plot in a tragedy.
  • (mathematics) A type of bifurcation, where a system shifts between two stable states.
  • Synonyms

    *nakba

    Derived terms

    * catastrophe bond * catastrophe theory