cumulative
Americanadjective
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increasing or growing by accumulation or successive additions.
the cumulative effect of one rejection after another.
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formed by or resulting from accumulation or the addition of successive parts or elements.
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of or relating to interest or dividends that, if not paid when due, become a prior claim for payment in the future.
cumulative preferred stocks.
adjective
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growing in quantity, strength, or effect by successive additions or gradual steps
cumulative pollution
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gained by or resulting from a gradual building up
cumulative benefits
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finance
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(of preference shares) entitling the holder to receive any arrears of dividend before any dividend is distributed to ordinary shareholders
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(of dividends or interest) intended to be accumulated if not paid when due
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statistics
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(of a frequency) including all values of a variable either below or above a specified value
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(of error) tending to increase as the sample size is increased
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of cumulative
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How does cumulative compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
The adjective cumulative describes the total amount of something when it's all added together. Eating a single chocolate doughnut is fine, but the cumulative effect of eating them all day is that you'll probably feel sick. The origin of cumulative is helpful in remembering the meaning; it comes from the Latin cumulatus for "to heap." If something is cumulative, it is heaped together so it can be counted up to get a total number. The cumulative snowfall for the whole winter isn't just the amount of snow that fell in one month, but rather the number of inches that fell every month that winter to get the total, cumulative, amount.
Vocabulary lists containing cumulative
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The Hunger Games
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The cumulative cost of almost one million Neet young people to the UK economy has been estimated to be £125bn per year, the review said.
From BBC • May 29, 2026
Job placement agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas predicts that teens only will gain a cumulative 790,000 jobs in May, June, and July 2026.
From Barron's • May 25, 2026
Participants with higher cumulative intake of extra virgin olive oil had a lower risk of a broad cardiovascular outcome, while common olive oil showed weaker associations.
From Science Daily • May 19, 2026
Semiconductors, meanwhile, with a 100.5 percentage-point cumulative two-year return, currently carry crash odds of 53% — essentially a coin flip.
From MarketWatch • May 18, 2026
Once again, he thought that tiny actions brought about cumulative effects and great change.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
