crescendo

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“
Most chapters also have what is known as a crescendo event, where the players must fight off the zombie horde massing upon them for a set amount of time before they can move on, normally after using something to make a path to move forward in the chapter (an early example is waiting for an elevator to arrive).

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. noun Music A gradual increase, especially in the volume or intensity of sound in a passage.
  2. noun Music A passage played with a gradual increase in volume or intensity.
  3. noun A steady increase in intensity or force: "insisted [that] all paragraphs ... should be structured as a crescendo rising to a climactic last sentence” (Henry A. Kissinger).
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Examples (50)

  • As the music climbed to a crescendo, a broken gasp escaped her. —  Teresa Medeiros - Once An Angel
  • The crowd noise surges to a crescendo, and holds there momentarily, battering conducive. —  F ;SF; - vol 089 issue 01 - July 1995
  • A continuous screaming bellow like the clamor in hell rose in an ear-blasting crescendo, and beyond the glass doors rolled billowing clouds of steam, shot through with jagged fires. —  Startling Stories January, 1939
  • Music swelled to a crescendo, as passengers braced themselves, hugging loved ones, and hunkering deeper into body-couches. —  Asimov's Science Fiction, April 2002
  • As it reached a crescendo, the ache intensified, growing more bitter than sweet as he realized what its melody signified. —  NOBODY'S DARLING
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Italian, present participle of crescere, to increase, from Latin crēscere; see ker-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Italian, present participle of crescere, from Latin crescere, increase: see cresce.
 

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/krɛˈʃɛndə/
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