Climax (rhetoric)

In rhetoric, a climax (Greek: κλῖμαξ, klîmax, lit. "staircase" or "ladder") is a figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing importance.[1][2] In its use with clauses, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (lit. "growth").[3]

  1. ^ Corbett and Connors, 1999. p. 57
    Baldick, 2008. p. 59
  2. ^ Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. p. 677. ISBN 0-674-36250-0.
  3. ^ Baldick, 2008. p. 31