Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CLI'MAX, n. [Gr. κλιμαξ, a scale or ladder; L. climax, perhaps from the root of the W. llamu, to step, stride, leap, llam, a step, stride, leap. Ir. leimim, leim, or from the root of climb.]

1. Gradation; ascent; a figure of rhetoric, in which a sentence rises as it were, step by step; or in which the expression which ends one member of the period, begins the second, and so on, till the period is finished; as in the following: “When we have practiced good actions a while, they become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us, we do them frequently; and by frequency of acts, they grow into a habit.” Tillotson.
2. A sentence, or series of sentences, in which the successive members or sentences rise in force, importance or dignity, to the close of the sentence or series. – Dryden.