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Crescendo vs Peak - What's the difference?

crescendo | peak |

As nouns the difference between crescendo and peak

is that crescendo is crescendo while peak is a point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.

As a verb peak is

to reach a highest degree or maximum or peak can be to become sick or wan or peak can be .

crescendo

English

Alternative forms

*

Noun

  • (label) An instruction to play gradually more loudly, denoted by a long, narrow angle with its apex on the left ( < ).
  • (label) A gradual increase of anything, especially to a dramatic climax.
    • Their fighting rose in a fearsome crescendo.
  • The climax of a gradual increase.
    • Their arguing rose to a fearsome crescendo.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 20 , author=Michael da Silva , title=Stoke 3 - 0 Macc Tel-Aviv , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=With the Stoke supporters jeering Ziv's every subsequent touch, the pantomime atmosphere created by the home crowd reached a crescendo when Ziv was shown a straight red shortly after the break in extraordinary circumstances.}}

    Usage notes

    * The musical sense indicates that the figurative sense is an increase rather than the climax of the increase. The use of this word to mean the climax of an increase is nonstandard but commonplace.

    Antonyms

    * (music) decrescendo, diminuendo * (the climax of a gradual increase) climax, conclusion

    Verb

    (es)
  • To increase in intensity, to reach or head for a crescendo.
    • The band crescendoed and then suddenly went silent.
    ----

    peak

    English

    (wikipedia peak)

    Etymology 1

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.
  • The highest value reached by some quantity in a time period.
    • The stock market reached a peak in September 1929.
  • * 2012 October 23, David Leonhardt, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/us/politics/race-for-president-leaves-income-slump-in-shadows.html?_r=1&hp]," New York Times (retrieved 24 October 2012):
    • By last year, family income was 8 percent lower than it had been 11 years earlier, at its peak in 2000, according to inflation-adjusted numbers from the Census Bureau.
  • (geography) The top, or one of the tops, of a hill, mountain, or range, ending in a point; often, the whole hill or mountain, especially when isolated; as, the Peak of Teneriffe.
  • (nautical) The upper aftermost corner of a fore-and-aft sail; -- used in many combinations; as, peak-halyards, peak-brails, etc.
  • (nautical) The narrow part of a vessel's bow, or the hold within it.
  • (nautical) The extremity of an anchor fluke; the bill.
  • (mathematics) A local maximum of a function, e.g. for sine waves, each point at which the value of y is at its maximum.
    • Synonyms
    * apex, pinnacle, top, summit * See also
    Derived terms
    * peakless * peaklike * peakwise

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To reach a highest degree or maximum.
    • Historians argue about when the Roman Empire began to peak and ultimately decay.
  • To rise or extend into a peak or point; to form, or appear as, a peak.
  • * Holland
    • There peaketh up a mighty high mount.
    Synonyms
    * culminate
    Derived terms
    * off-peak

    Etymology 2

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To become sick or wan.
  • To acquire sharpness of figure or features; hence, to look thin or sickly.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Dwindle, peak , and pine.
  • To pry; to peep slyly.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Etymology 3

    Verb

    (en verb)