Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The intensified part of the action directly preceding the catastrophe in classical tragedy.
  • noun The climax of a drama.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In rhetoric, that part of the exordium in which the speaker seeks to dispose his hearers to a view of the case favorable to his own side, especially by removing from their minds what might prejudice them against it.
  • noun That part of the Greek drama in which the action, initiated in the epitasis, is sustained, continued, and prepared for the catastrophe.
  • noun In medicine, constitution, state, or condition.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Rhet.) That part of a speech, usually the exordium, in which the orator sets forth the subject matter to be discussed.
  • noun (Med.) The state, or condition of anything; constitution; habit of body.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun In classical drama, the third and penultimate section, in which action is heightened for the catastrophe.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek katastasis, settled state, from kathistanai, to come into a certain state : kat-, kata-, cata- + histanai, to set; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek κατάστασις ("settling, appointment").

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Examples

  • It doubles itself in the middle of his life, reflects itself in another, repeats itself, protasis, epitasis, catastasis, catastrophe.

    Ulysses 2003

  • It doubles itself in the middle of his life, reflects itself in another, repeats itself, protasis, epitasis, catastasis, catastrophe.

    Ulysses James Joyce 1911

  • Consider therefore this pitiable Twentieth of June as a futility; no catastrophe, rather a catastasis, or heightening.

    The French Revolution Thomas Carlyle 1838

  • Raise the interest rates but also curb the usury that sends people into a financial catastasis.

    Drudge Retort 2008

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