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Anticlimax

//ˈæn.tiˌklaɪ.mæks// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A failed or reverse climax, particularly countable, uncountable

    "Reed, Superba of yore, made a gallant effort to summon the Promethean fire that once burned within him when it was his “listening senates to command,” but his vaunted perorations proved anticlimaces and his oratory a flop."

  2. 2
    a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one wordnet
  3. 3
    A failed or reverse climax; An unsatisfying resolution to a narrative, usually owing to a deus ex machina or similarly trivial resolution of the main conflict. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a disappointing decline after a previous rise wordnet
  5. 5
    A failed or reverse climax; An abrupt descent (either deliberate or unintentional) from the dignity of the idea which the speaker or writer appeared to be aiming for. countable, rhetoric, uncountable

Etymology

From anti- + climax.

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