anticlimax

Definitions

1. A failed or reverse climax, particularly
   countable, uncountable
2. A failed or reverse climax
   countable, uncountable
3. An unsatisfying resolution to a narrative, usually owing to a deus ex machina or similarly trivial resolution of the main conflict.
   countable, uncountable
4. 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

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“If the siege of Boston seemed to end⟳ in anticlimax, with the sudden retreat of British military forces, the siege of New York City seen from the inside, from under siege, seemed infinitely more portentous: “The Day is Come⟳ that in all Probility on which Depends the Salvation of this Countery.””

CEFR level