crescendo vs climax :

crescendo or climax

When something is growing louder or more intense, it is going through acrescendo (from an Italian word meaning “growing”). Traditionalistsobject to its use when you mean “climax.” A crescendo of cheers by anenthusiastic audience grows until it reaches a climax, or peak.“Crescendo” as a verb is common, but also disapproved of by manyauthorities. Instead of “the orchestra crescendos,” write “the orchestraplays a crescendo.”

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Definitions
  crescendo
  • n  (music) a gradual increase in loudness
  • v  grow louder
    The music crescendoes here
  • s  gradually increasing in volume
  climax
  • n  the highest point of anything conceived of as growing or developing or unfolding
    the climax of the artist's career
  • n  the decisive moment in a novel or play
    the deathbed scene is the climax of the play
  • n  the moment of most intense pleasure in sexual intercourse
  • n  the most severe stage of a disease
  • n  arrangement of clauses in ascending order of forcefulness
  • v  end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage
News & Articles
  crescendo
  climax
  • Today in history: June 15, 2013
    In 1913: Ten barrels of Bohemian beer arrived in Happy Camp by pack train the previous Saturday night. The next day everybody in the town was drunk, five or six men and a few boys excepted. As a climax, Will Bellew took five shots at N.B. Baker. Bellow was of unsteady aim and he missed Baker every time.
    June 15, 2013 - The Record Searchlight
  • World Cup 2014: Iconic Moments from Past Finals
    The World Cup is exactly one year away. The 2014 finals will begin on June 12 next year, and the sense of anticipation is already beginning to build as qualification groups across the globe begin to reach their climax. Brazil will host the tournament next year, with Sao Paulo hosting the opening game, as Fifa .com confirmed. The World Cup finals are the pinnacle of any player's career, but will ...
    June 12, 2013 - Bleacher Report
  • With Man of Steel, You'll Believe a Man Can Fly -- and Is Worth Watching
    Zack Snyder's Man of Steel is a movie event with an actual movie inside, crying to get out. Despite its preposterous self-seriousness, its overblown, CGI'ed-to-death climax and its desperate efforts to depict the destruction of, well, everything on Earth, there's greatness in this r...
    June 12, 2013 - Dallas Observer