1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Anticlimax

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. A decline viewed in disappointing contrast with a previous rise: the anticlimax of a brilliant career.

n. Something trivial or commonplace that concludes a series of significant events: After a week of dramatic negotiations, all that followed was anticlimax.

n. A sudden descent in speaking or writing from the impressive or significant to the ludicrous or inconsequential, or an instance of it: "Waggish non-Yale men never seem weary of calling 'for God, for Country and for Yale' the outstanding single anticlimax in the English language” ( Time).

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A break in the final crescendo or climax of a narrative, producing a disappointing end.

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A sentence in which the ideas fall, or become less important and striking, at the close; -- the opposite of climax. It produces a ridiculous effect.

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A figure or fault of style, consisting in an abrupt descent from stronger to weaker expressions, or from the mention of more important to that of less important things: opposed to climax.

WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

n. a disappointing decline after a previous rise

n. a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one

Word Usage

"I think this is what you might call an anticlimax."

Hypernym

Words that are more generic or abstract

fall downfall conclusion end close

Synonym

Words with the same meaning

bathos comedown

Same Context

Words that are found in similar contexts

pointlessness dénouement Trilling inutility ridiculousness