climactic

adjective cli·mac·tic \ klī-ˈmak-tik , klə- \

|Updated on: 8 Jun 2018

Examples: climactic in a Sentence

Definition of climactic

: of, relating to, or constituting a climax

the film's climactic scene

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climactically

play \-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

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Examples of climactic in a Sentence

At the climactic moment, the main character of the novel finds herself face to face with the thief.
the movie's climactic chase scene

Recent Examples of climactic from the Web

Another dramatic obstacle came while Carrey was filming one of the climactic final scenes—in which his character manages to escape cameras, overcome his fear of water, and jump into a boat.

— julie miller, HWD, "Twenty Years Later, Everything Is The Truman Show," 5 June 2018
There’s no such narrative punctuation in The Eagle and the Hawk (screening on Friday 6/8 and Saturday 6/9), though Inoue generates a sense of spectacle in a rousing climactic set piece shot during an actual typhoon.

— ben sachs, Chicago Reader, "Film / Foreign Discover the work of noted Japanese genre director Umetsugu Inoue," 30 May 2018
The branching narratives really come to a head in the third act, in a climactic scene that brings all the disparate plot threads together and throws a dizzying array of meaningful choices at the player in quick succession.

— kyle orland, Ars Technica, "Detroit: Become Human review: Robotic in all of the wrong ways," 24 May 2018
The climactic scene started with a knock on the door of an expansive suite at the W Hotel in Manhattan’s Times Square.

— jake fischer and jon wertheim, SI.com, "Could a Rogue FBI Agent Derail the NCAA Corruption Probe?," 23 May 2018
And who, having heard the rest — the coke-snorting billionaire bad guy, the climactic battle, the many dystopian flights of fancy — could resist helping Riley get the thing up on screen?

— jonah weiner, New York Times, "How Boots Riley Infiltrated Hollywood," 22 May 2018
The climactic battle takes up nearly half of the movie, with multiple story beats happening just within that fight.

— jacob kastrenakes, The Verge, "New trailers: Ant-Man and The Wasp, Robin Hood, and more," 5 May 2018
During the climactic battle in which the villagers storm the castle, Le Fou becomes pinned to the ground, and despite his cries for help, Gaston doesn't come to his aid.

— nico lang, Harper's BAZAAR, "Disney's Long, Complicated History with Queer Characters," 21 Mar. 2017
Just before the song wrapped, host Kelly Clarkson came out to take a climactic line on the chorus.

— dave quinn, PEOPLE.com, "Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue Reunite for Funky Hit-Filled Medley at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards," 20 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'climactic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.