climacteric

of, relating to, or being a major turning point as the war reached its climacteric phase, the atrocities dramatically increased, both in number and brutality Synonyms apocalyptic (also apocalyptical), climacticRelated Words apical, apogean, crestal, crowning, culminating, high, highest, meridian; critical, crossover, crucial, fateful, life-and-death (also life-or-death), vital; cataclysmal (or cataclysmic), earthshaking, epochal, momentous; deciding, decisive, payoff, pivotal, watershed; go-no-go, make-or-breakNear Antonyms anticlimactic (also anticlimactical); inconsequential, indecisive, insignificant, noncritical, trivial, unimportant

a point in a chain of events at which an important change (as in one's fortunes) occurs historians attempting to pinpoint the Roman Empire's climacteric, that precise moment when it began its long downhill slide Synonyms turning point, climax, corner, landmark, milepost, milestone, watershedRelated Words break, capper, clincher, crusher, highlight, topper; conversion, metamorphosis, transfiguration, transformation, turnabout, turnaround; boiling point, breaking point, clutch, conjuncture, crisis, crossroad(s), crunch, crunch time, Dunkirk, emergency, exigency, extremity, flash point, head, juncture, zero hour