anticlimax
anticlimaxes
If you think you’re approaching the high point, but then realize it’s really the low point, that’s an anticlimax — a moment when excitement quickly changes to disappointment.
In a movie or book, a climax is the point where, after a long buildup, everything gets really intense and dramatic. But if there’s a lot of buildup and then suddenly something really boring happens, that’s an anticlimax. Like waiting all day to see fireworks, but then nobody has any matches. It can also mean discussing something important like war or art, and then someone interrupts to talk about candy. Talk about a letdown.
-
a disappointing decline after a previous rise
-
a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one
Vocabulary lists containing anticlimax
If you want to understand the tools and techniques that great writers use, learn these literary devices and figures of speech.
This satirical novel, in which Vonnegut interrogates religion and technology, is narrated by a man who travels to an unusual island society and learns about a mysterious substance called ice-nine.
Simon Kelleher publishes gossip about his classmates online. When he unexpectedly dies during detention, the four students who were in the room with him become prime suspects in his murder.
Look up anticlimax for the last time
Close your vocabulary gaps with personalized learning that focuses on teaching the words you need to know.
