anticlimactic

UK/ˌantɪjklɑjˈmaktɪk/

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,788 of 15,258neutral

Anticlimactic means disappointing after everything that built up to it. An anticlimactic ending, rather anticlimactic, anticlimactic in the end.

It describes the gap between expectation and event rather than the event itself, so a perfectly good outcome can be anticlimactic. It is a different word from anticlimatic, which is not a word at all.

Definitions of anticlimactic

1adjectiveanticlimacticDisappointing after everything that built up to it.C1
“After all the excitement of the build-up, the final match was a bit anticlimactic.”

anticlimactic is a quality.

Where it comes from

From anti- + climactic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

anticlimactic in the wild

The Series was anticlimactic after tight pennant races in both leagues.
1908 World Series
Critics have expressed dislike, however, for Ichigo's anticlimactic fights in the latter half of the series' due to his lack of memorable scenes at those points.
Ichigo Kurosaki
Continuing to the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, Rogers had an anticlimactic end to his career, being eliminated in the semifinals of the 100-metre freestyle.
Greg Rogers
The term is a pun on the phrase "shaggy dog story", which describes a lengthy or complicated story with an anticlimactic conclusion.
Shaggy God story
The men and women of the 315th ended their war on an anticlimactic note, serving for the last year as part of the garrison of the Crimea.
315th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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