culminate
/ˈkʌl.mɪ.neɪt//ˈkʌl.məˌneɪt/
culminate verb: of a heavenly body, to be at the highest point, reach its greatest altitude.
Verb
culminate (third-person singular simple present culminates, present participle culminating, simple past and past participle culminated)
- Of a heavenly body, to be at the highest point, reach its greatest altitude.
- To reach the (physical or figurative) summit, highest point, peak etc.
- The tower culminates in a point.
- As when his beams at noon / Culminate from the equator.1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Synonyms:
- peak
- To reach a climax; to come to a decisive point, especially an end or conclusion.
- Their messy breakup culminated in a restraining order.
- The class will culminate with a rigorous examination.
- To reach a point at which continued progress is not possible.
- Approaching from the south on foot, elements of the CG battalion were first to come into contact and their attack culminated because the rate and accuracy of the VC small arms fire. The CG battalions attempted two assaults to penetrate[…]2014 August 15, Major Kevin R. Kilbride, Military Assistance Advisory Group-Vietnam (1954-1963): The Battle Of Ap Bac, Pickle Partners Publishing, →ISBN
- As a result, the attack culminated the first day without additional artillery support. The towns of Eclisfontaine and Epinonville were not held on the first day as originally directed in the Corps plan.2014 August 15, Major Bryan L. Woodcock, 91st Infantry In World War I--Analysis Of An AEF Division's Efforts To Achieve Battlefield Success [Illustrated Edition], Pickle Partners Publishing, →ISBN...
- To finalize, bring to a conclusion, form the climax of.
- I would like to know if there are any true moralists who would like to correspond with someone who just instinctively feels there's something wrong somewhere in this unbenevolent world and wants to save it by culminating love and eradicating the captive emotions of the self (Ego).1986 April 26, Tony Marcus Antuan Haywood, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 18
- The announcement by Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott in Canberra culminated more than a fortnight of intensive political horse-trading.2010 September 7, “By the skin of her teeth”, in The Economist
Adjective
UK/ˈkʌlmɪnət/US/ˈkəlmənət/
culminate (not comparable)
- Relating to the culmen.
- Growing upward, as opposed to lateral growth.
culminate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
culminate in Tamil
- உச்சத்திற்குக் கொண்டு செல், உச்சம் அடை
culminate in Urdu
- اوج حاصل کرنا
culminate in Bengali
- চরমে পৌঁছানো, সমাপ্ত হওয়া
culminate in Malayalam
- ഉച്ചാവസ്ഥ പ്രാപിക്കുക, ഉത്തമനിലയിൽ എത്തിച്ചേരുക, ഉന്നതസ്ഥാനത്തെത്തുക, പരകോടിയിൽ എത്തുക
More languagesFewer languages
- culminate in Kannada
- ಕೊನೆಗೊಳ್ಳು, ಸಮಾಪ್ತಿಯಾಗು, ತುತ್ತತುದಿ ಮುಟ್ಟು, ಉಚ್ಛ್ರಾಯ ತಲುಪು
Examples of culminate in a sentence
- The type of Cycads culminated in the Mesozoic1875, James Dwight Dana, Manual of Geology:
- This culminates in a timetable change in December 2020, at which point EMR will introduce a sixth train each hour out of St Pancras.2019 October, Tony Miles, Philip Sherratt, “EMR kicks off new era”, in Modern Railways, page 53:
- Bush has been marking the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11 with a series of speeches about terrorism that culminated with his televised address last night.2006 September 12, “President Bush’s Reality”, in New York Times:
- This culminated in successful attacks on Donggang in 1897, and Chaojhou in 1898 with an army of two thousand that included Paiwan and Hakka troops as well as Taiwanese.2007, Stephen Keeling, Brice Minnigh, The Rough Guide to Taiwan (Rough Guides), Penguin, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 510:
Synonyms of culminate
Forms of culminate
| third-person singular present | culminates |
|---|---|
| present participle | culminating |
| past participle | culminated |
| past | culminated |
Origin of culminate
First attested in 1647; borrowed from Medieval Latin culminātus, perfect passive participle of culminō (“to crown”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from Latin culmen (“peak, highest point”, oblique stem culmin-) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), older form columen (“top, summit”), from Proto-Italic *kolamen, from a Proto-Indo-European base *kol-, *kelH- (“to project, rise; peak, summit, top”), whence also English hill and holm.
First attested in 1846; by surface analysis, Latin culmen (oblique stem culmin-) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), see Etymology 1.
Words formed from culminate
Questions about culminate
- What does culminate mean?
- Culminate means of a heavenly body, to be at the highest point, reach its greatest altitude.
- What is culminate in Tamil?
- Culminate in Tamil is உச்சத்திற்குக் கொண்டு செல், உச்சம் அடை. See Culminate meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use culminate in a sentence?
- The type of Cycads culminated in the Mesozoic
- What part of speech is culminate?
- Culminate can be a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce culminate?
- Culminate is pronounced /ˈkʌl.mɪ.neɪt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of culminate?
- The past tense of culminate is culminated.
Words near culminate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: culminate (page history and authors); culminate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); culminate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); culminate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); culminate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); culminate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-culminate.ogg, En-us-culminate.ogg.
Cite this entry: “culminate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/culminate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.