How to Use anticlimax in a Sentence

anticlimax

noun
  • The last chapter of the book was an anticlimax.
  • The movie ended in anticlimax.
  • But the book’s anticlimax is the hook upon which the whole thing hangs.
    Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic, 17 May 2018
  • And the game ended in an anticlimax that gave the Ravens the victory.
    Robert Morast, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Jan. 2020
  • Here, wrapping with an anticlimax seems to be Aster’s idea of a joke.
    Peter Debruge, Variety, 10 Apr. 2023
  • In each of these hunts, the anticlimax of the stalk is tempered by awe at the animal’s anatomy.
    Andrew McKean, Outdoor Life, 21 Feb. 2020
  • At some point, the titans will retreat, we will be left with a new cast and there will be some anticlimax.
    Jon Wertheim, SI.com, 17 Jan. 2018
  • Though most of them would probably regard his move to P.S.G. as a bit of an anticlimax, too.
    Rory Smith, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2020
  • The heist itself is an anticlimax, heightened by there being no bad guys in the bank, just more victims.
    Peter Hartlaub, Orange County Register, 6 Apr. 2017
  • And where the ninth episode is amazing on almost every level the finale is a bit of an anticlimax.
    Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 10 May 2021
  • And then the quick anticlimax, as Apollo ended in 1972.
    Andrew Grant, Discover Magazine, 27 Nov. 2012
  • Yet for all the gravity of the moment, there is a palpable sense of anticlimax.
    Mark Landler, New York Times, 31 Jan. 2020
  • Pax Persiana If the rise of the Persian emperor was stellar, his end was a grim anticlimax.
    National Geographic, 6 Jan. 2020
  • Inevitably, the second-chance try goes in, providing the height of anticlimax.
    Bruce Jenkins, SFChronicle.com, 25 June 2019
  • Then, in the pinnacle of anticlimax, Wood uncorked a first-pitch wild pitch to Kris Bryant, allowing Baez to sprint home from third for the winning run.
    Zach Buchanan, Cincinnati.com, 16 Aug. 2017
  • The first try is often (and rightly) an awkward, anxious, and low-key painful anticlimax.
    Karley Sciortino, Vogue, 19 Oct. 2018
  • In many ways Dole’s general-election campaign was an anticlimax to the greater dramas of his life.
    David M. Shribman, Los Angeles Times, 5 Dec. 2021
  • And, despite fears that the series could be an anticlimax after the remarkable World Cup final, most of the five Test matches were thrillers.
    M.j., The Economist, 17 Sep. 2019
  • The sense that the franchise was an anticlimax, even a disappointment, was widespread among those who had taken part in the cause, like Virginia Woolf.
    Deborah Cohen, The Atlantic, 20 Dec. 2020
  • Photo: Getty The delay marked an anticlimax to a rush of activity in the House.
    Siobhan Hughes, WSJ, 21 June 2018
  • In such an instance, the issue may not only be that the audience has been robbed of drama, that climax has been swapped out for anticlimax.
    Robert O'Connell, The Atlantic, 5 July 2019
  • As the room emptied, Mace weighed his victory against its anticlimax.
    Dan Greene, The New Yorker, 12 June 2023
  • The first drops are already falling, pattering down in a vast anticlimax.
    By Michael Browning, miamiherald, 25 Aug. 2015
  • After all this, arriving in Key West was at first an anticlimax.
    Tony Perrottet, WSJ, 15 Aug. 2022
  • The home page is an anticlimax of a greeting, stale and still except for the bare-bones GIF of a small, perpetually running blue figure that serves as the site’s logo.
    Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2023
  • But the post-Bernstein years — even Mehta’s 13-year run, the orchestra’s longest-ever directorship — come across in many tellings as a bit of an anticlimax.
    Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 7 Feb. 2023
  • For all the menace and mystique around hacking tools, actually shutting one down is a bit of an anticlimax.
    Lily Hay Newman, Wired, 25 Oct. 2020
  • The visual drama compensates for the anticlimax of the building’s main entry, which is located off a parking lot on the building’s rear side.
    Steven Litt, cleveland.com, 21 July 2019
  • The story meanders near the end, but the anticlimax can't quite dispel the movie's warm eccentricity.
    J.r. Jones, Chicago Reader, 3 May 2018
  • Whatever Ranieri did this season would have felt like an anticlimax.
    Rory Smith, New York Times, 23 Feb. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'anticlimax.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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