climactic

of, relating to, or being a major turning point the French Revolution is usually regarded as one of the climactic events in modern European history Synonyms apocalyptic (also apocalyptical), climacteric Related 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-break Near Antonyms anticlimactic (also anticlimactical); inconsequential, indecisive, insignificant, noncritical, trivial, unimportant