Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use accumulate in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, adjective

Accumulate means to heap up in a mass; to pile up; to collect or bring together (either literally or figuratively), often gradually and without active intent. Example: “He wishes to accumulate a sum of money.”

Examples of accumulate by meaning

verbTo heap up in a mass; to pile up; to collect or bring together (either literally or figuratively), often gradually and...

  • He wishes to accumulate a sum of money.
  • And when the white dwarf accumulates too much mass, it will collapse and explode in a supernova.2024 August 21, Ashley Strickland, “An unusual object is moving so fast it could escape the Milky Way. Scientists aren’t certain what it...

verbTo gradually grow or increase in quantity or number.

  • With her company going bankrupt, her divorce, and a gambling habit, debts started to accumulate so she had to sell her house.

More sentences with accumulate

  • His library contained the accumulated knowledge of the Greeks and Romans.From the entry knowledge
  • Over time, they accumulated a tidy nest egg and retired comfortably.From the entry nest egg
  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:accumulated.From the entry accumulated
  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:accumulating.From the entry accumulating
  • Peter removed the C♯ chime from its mounting so that he could get at the dust that had accumulated underneath.From the entry chime
  • She accumulated a plentiful collection of books.From the entry plentiful
  • Why does all this fluff accumulate in the turn-ups?From the entry turn-up
  • Humus may accumulate both sedimentarily and sedentarily.From the entry sedimentarily
  • Both her followings accumulate to an impressive 16.9, almost 17 million followers.2023 January 31, Katelyn Mensah, “Who is Mikayla Nogueira? The beauty TikToker whose face and eyelashes are all over your FYP”, in The…. From the entry following
  • These may then accumulate in the gut or be passed to offspring through regurgitates.2021, Alice A. Horton, Isobelle Blissett, Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Freshwater Aquatic, Terrestrial and Avian Migratory Species in…. From the entry regurgitate
  • Scaffolds must be capable of supporting building workers, equipment, materials, tools and any accumulated waste.2015, Phil Hughes, Ed Ferrett, “Workplace Hazards and Risk Control”, in International Health and Safety at Work: For the NEBOSH…. From the entry scaffold
  • Furthermore, by TEM, we found that the ultramicrostructure accumulated a significant amount of fat.2015 September 2, “Low Expression of Mfn2 Is Associated with Mitochondrial Damage and Apoptosis of Ovarian Tissues in the Premature…. From the entry ultramicrostructure
  • Secondly, probably pathogens or allelopathetic substances may have accumulated in the central zones.2015 October 16, “Clonal Patch Size and Ramet Position of Leymus chinensis Affected Reproductive Allocation”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry allelopathetic
  • They are barnacles that accumulate in a mass of decaying metal.2015 June 2, Jonathan Jones, “Love locks are the shallowest, stupidest, phoniest expression of love ever – time to put a stop to it”, in…. From the entry love lock
  • The valley floor is so level the slow-flowing current is often tinted brown with accumulated tannins.2014 September 24, George Ellison, “Nature Journal: Directions to an autumn paradise in WNC”, in The Asheville Citizen-Times, retrieved 01…. From the entry wildflowering
  • Furtling amongst the loose change and accumulated junk, he finally found what he was looking for.2011, Mark R. Faulkner, Flux, →ISBN, page 4. From the entry furtle
  • But I accumulated a cigar box full of greenies, brownies and a few goldies.2009, Charles R. Twyman, Daddy, There's a Light in the Sky: An Illumination of Life Stories, →ISBN. From the entry goldie
  • The worms accumulate natural estrogen excreted in human waste and estrogenlike compounds from plastics manufacturing.2008 March 4, Henry Fountain, “Polluted Worms Help Starling’s Song, but Not Mating Fitness”, in New York Times. From the entry estrogenlike
  • It does not take much effort these days to accumulate several hundred gigabytes of data.2007 August 2, larry Magid, “On a Home Network, the Right Drive Means Storage for All”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the…. From the entry gigabyte
  • The rainwater was accumulating in deep manurey puddles around the barn and stables.2005, J. P. S. Brown, Ladino, page 144. From the entry manurey
  • Douche boats destroyed two bunkers and accumulated 30 minutes of water time.2005, William B. Fulton, Mobile Riverine Force: America's Mobile Riverine Force Vietnam, Turner Publishing, →ISBN, page 42. From the entry douche boat
  • Limy muds accumulated there as sediments, and entombed the remains of the animals living on the sea-floor.2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 6. From the entry limy
  • The paludic soils, coded "Pt," characterize peat accumulated in fen, transitional, or bog mire ecosystems.2002, Leon Etienne Parent, Piotr Ilnicki, Organic Soils and Peat Materials for Sustainable Agriculture, →ISBN, page 2. From the entry paludic
  • In some cases, soil concentrations are such that selenophilic plants can accumulate selenium to toxic concentrations.1998 March 23, Robert Alan Lewis, Lewis' Dictionary of Toxicology, CRC-Press, →ISBN, page 931. From the entry selenophilic
  • Each player in turn takes his slammer and pitches it hard onto the accumulated pile of pogs.1997, Iona Archibald Opie, Peter Opie, Children's Games with Things, page 120. From the entry slammer
  • Other end-products can accumulate, particularly during heterofermentations, and these products also exhibit antagonistic activity.1992, Brian J. B. Wood, The Lactic acid bacteria in health and disease. From the entry heterofermentation
  • Accumulated data indicate that in all species of sharks, the females grow larger than the males.1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 36. From the entry female
  • With this, undermotivation turns to antimotivation; failures accumulate and their emotional threshold goes down.1977, Louise M. Berman, Jessie A. Roderick, Feeling, valuing, and the art of growing: insights into the affective. From the entry antimotivation
  • A plethora of sub-superstitions thus accumulated around the sacrament of the altar.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 32. From the entry sub-superstition
  • The first thing a baron does is to accumulate a supply of tobacco.1960, Hugh J. Klare, Anatomy of Prison, page 33. From the entry baron
  • Evidence is accumulating that bolters are plants which have changed their long-day habit to that of short-day.1949, Redcliffe Nathan Salaman, The History and Social Influence of the Potato, published 2000, page 68. From the entry bolter
  • Under present social arrangments accumulated property is handed on to heirs.1922, J. G. H. Barry, Our Lady Saint Mary. From the entry arrangment
  • Meanwhile learned monographs on different sections of the subject have been fast accumulating.1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page vi. From the entry monograph
  • “He’s spending the political capital he’s accumulated for a decade,” Alex Conant, a GOP strategist who worked in President George W.2025 August 7, Jonathan Lemire, quoting Alex Conant, “Things Aren’t Going Donald Trump’s Way”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original…. From the entry political capital
  • Outside the room, as the afternoon wore into early evening, small groups of cosplayers and noncosplayers began to accumulate.2022, Frenchy Lunning, “Introduction: The Cosplay Experience”, in Cosplay: The Fictional Mode of Existence, Minneapolis, MN: University of…. From the entry noncosplayer
  • As plastics cannot be easily egested, these can accumulate within the stomach, causing impaction and leading ultimately to death.2021, Alice A. Horton, Isobelle Blissett, Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Freshwater Aquatic, Terrestrial and Avian Migratory Species in…. From the entry impaction
  • They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down and have been found to accumulate in humans.[2021 May 13, Tom Perkins, “Study finds alarming levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in US mothers’ breast milk”, in The Guardian, retrieved 13…. From the entry forever chemical

Meaning of accumulate

  1. verb To heap up in a mass; to pile up; to collect or bring together (either literally or figuratively), often gradually and without active intent.
  2. verb To gradually grow or increase in quantity or number.
  3. verb To take a higher degree at the same time with a lower degree, or at a shorter interval than usual.

Full definition of accumulate

Questions about accumulate in a sentence

How do you use accumulate in a sentence?
Accumulate is used as a verb and adjective. For example: “He wishes to accumulate a sum of money.”
What is a short sentence with accumulate?
“For quotations using this term, see Citations:accumulated.”
What does accumulate mean?
Accumulate means to heap up in a mass; to pile up; to collect or bring together (either literally or figuratively), often gradually and without active intent.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: accumulate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use accumulate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/accumulate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.