climax (ˈklaɪmæks)
n
1. the most intense or highest point of an experience or of a series of events: the party was the climax of the week.
2. (Theatre) a decisive moment in a dramatic or other work
3. (Rhetoric) a rhetorical device by which a series of sentences, clauses, or phrases are arranged in order of increasing intensity
4. (Environmental Science) ecology the stage in the development of a community during which it remains stable under the prevailing environmental conditions
5. (Physiology) Also called: sexual climax (esp in referring to women) another word for orgasm
vb
6. to reach or bring to a climax
[C16: from Late Latin, from Greek klimax ladder]