Brewer's: Climax

means a stair (Greek), applied to the last of a gradation of arguments, each of which is stronger than the preceding. The last of a gradation of words of a similar character is also called a climax. The point of highest development.

“In the very climax of his career ... he was stricken down.” —Chittenden: Recollections of Lincoln chap. xlv. p. 454.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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