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
  • Indeed, the end even of a great mystery can feel like an anticlimax.
    — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 14 Nov. 2023
  • Here, wrapping with an anticlimax seems to be Aster’s idea of a joke.
    — Peter Debruge, Variety, 10 Apr. 2023
  • 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
  • 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
  • The sense of anticlimax is crushing.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2026
  • 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 the game ended in an anticlimax that gave the Ravens the victory.
    — Robert Morast, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Jan. 2020
  • 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
  • The first try is often (and rightly) an awkward, anxious, and low-key painful anticlimax.
    — Karley Sciortino, Vogue, 19 Oct. 2018
  • Yet for all the gravity of the moment, there is a palpable sense of anticlimax.
    — Mark Landler, New York Times, 31 Jan. 2020
  • The first drops are already falling, pattering down in a vast anticlimax.
    — By Michael Browning, miamiherald, 25 Aug. 2015
  • Whatever Ranieri did this season would have felt like an anticlimax.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 23 Feb. 2017
  • As the room emptied, Mace weighed his victory against its anticlimax.
    — Dan Greene, The New Yorker, 12 June 2023
  • Inevitably, the second-chance try goes in, providing the height of anticlimax.
    — Bruce Jenkins, SFChronicle.com, 25 June 2019
  • Not merely failure but ridiculous anticlimax, of itself of an almost epic kind.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 12 Sep. 2023
  • After all this, arriving in Key West was at first an anticlimax.
    — Tony Perrottet, WSJ, 15 Aug. 2022
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • For all the protesting and political fervor, the universe chose an anticlimax, and the match finished in a 1-1 draw.
    — Alejandro Avila Outkick, FOXNews.com, 27 June 2026
  • 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
  • That anticlimax proved enduring motivation for son Clark, now the chairman of the Chiefs.
    — Kansas City Star, 15 May 2026
  • And so the moment collapses into anticlimax.
    — Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 7 Nov. 2025
  • 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
  • That anticlimax had put Carvalho on the defensive at the time, even though the storm caused notable damage in other parts of the Southland.
    — Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, 5 Feb. 2024
  • Clark’s final line (20 points on 7-of-18 shooting, seven assists, five turnovers) and the final score made for a bit of an anticlimax.
    — Brian Hamilton, New York Times, 9 May 2026

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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