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| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | critical |
| Synonyms: | acute, crucial, decisive, defining, key, significant |
| Main Entry: | climactic/climacteric |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | decisive |
| Synonyms: | acute, climactical, critical, crucial, desperate, dire, paramount, peak |
| Antonyms: | anticlimacteric, anticlimactic, bathetic, indecisive, trivial, undecided |
| Main Entry: | climax |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | peak, culmination |
| Synonyms: | acme, apex, apogee, ascendancy, capsheaf, capstone, climacteric, crest, crowning point, extremity, head, height, high spot, highlight, intensification, limit, maximum, meridian, ne plus ultra, orgasm, payoff, pinnacle, pitch, summit, tiptop, top, turning point, utmost, zenith |
| Antonyms: | anticlimax, cliffhanger |
| Main Entry: | crisis |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | critical situation |
| Synonyms: | big trouble, catastrophe, change, climacteric, climax, confrontation, contingency, corner, crossroad, crunch, crux, culmination, deadlock, dilemma, dire straits, disaster, embarrassment, emergency, entanglement, exigency, extremity, height, hot potato, hour of decision, imbroglio, impasse, juncture, mess, moment of truth, necessity, pass, perplexity, pickle, pinch*, plight, point of no return, predicament, pressure, puzzle, quandary, situation, stew, strait, trauma, trial, trouble, turning point, urgency |
| Antonyms: | calm, peace |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | critical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | urgently important |
| Synonyms: | acute, all-important, climacteric, conclusive, consequential, crucial, dangerous, deciding, decisive, desperate, determinative, dire, exceptive, grave, hairy*, hazardous, high-priority, integral, momentous, perilous, pivotal, precarious, pressing, risky, serious, significant, strategic, urgent, vital, weighty |
| Antonyms: | trivial, uncritical, unimportant |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | crucial |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | critical, important |
| Synonyms: | acute, central, clamorous, climacteric, climatic, compelling, deciding, decisive, desperate, dire, essential, hanging by thread, high-priority, imperative, insistent, momentous, necessary, on thin ice, pivotal, pressing, searching, showdown, touch and go, touchy, urgent, vital |
| Notes: | the words crucial, essential, and vital cannot be qualified (cannot be more or less...) |
| Antonyms: | inessential, trivial, uncritical, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | desperate |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | extreme, intense |
| Synonyms: | acute, climacteric, concentrated, critical, crucial, dire, drastic, exquisite, fierce, furious, great, terrible, urgent, vehement, very grave, vicious, violent |
| Antonyms: | calm, content, contented, satisfactory, satisfied |
| Main Entry: | dire |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | urgent; crucial |
| Synonyms: | acute, burning, clamant, clamorous, climacteric, critical, crying, desperate, drastic, exigent, extreme, immoderate, imperative, importunate, instant, pressing |
| Antonyms: | trivial, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | turning point |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | critical juncture |
| Synonyms: | axis, change, climacteric, climax, contingency, crisis, critical mass, critical moment, critical period, critical point, crossing, crossroads, crucial moment, crucial occurrence, crucial period, crunch, crux, culmination, cusp, decisive moment, defining moment, development, emergency, exigency, high noon, hinge, juncture, kairotic moment, moment of truth, moment of truth, nexus, pass, peak, peripeteia, pinch, pivot, pivotal moment, point of no return, race against time, rising action, shift, strait, transition, turn of the tide, twist, when push comes to shove, zero hour, zero hour |
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
