Definition:
A gradual increase in intensity of meaning with words arranged in ascending order of force or importance. See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "growth, amplification"Examples and Observations:
- "It is a sin to bind a Roman citizen, a crime to scourge him, little short of the most unnatural murder to put him to death; what then shall I call this crucifixion?"
(Cicero, Against Verres) - "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."
(Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven") - "Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'er-sways their power."
(William Shakespeare, Sonnet 65) - "It's a well hit ball, it's a long drive, it might be, it could be, it IS . . . a home run."
(Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Carey) - "Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird . . . it’s a plane . . . it’s Superman!"
(opening of The Adventures of Superman, television series) - "Auxesis is usually not listed by theorists as synonymous with the Climax/Anadiplosis cluster of terms, but the difference between auxesis, in its main sense of augmentation, and climax is a fine one. . . . The difference between the auxesis and climax clusters seems to be that in the climax cluster, the climactic series is realized through linked pairs of terms. One might therefore say that the auxesis cluster is a figure of amplification and the climax cluster a scheme of arrangement. Observing this distinction, however, we can call a climactic series a climax only when the terms are linked."
(Richard A. Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, 2nd edition, 1991) - "Jeans That Can
Lengthen Legs
Hug Hips
& Turn Heads"
(advertisement for Rider Jeans)
Pronunciation: og-ZEE-sis
Also Known As: incrementum, climax
