CLIMAX, noun

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.

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.