culmination

American  

[kuhl-muh-nay-shuhn] / ˌkʌl məˈneɪ ʃən /

noun

• culminations
  plural

1. the act or fact of culminating.

2. that in which anything culminates; the culminating position or stage; highest point; acme.

   Synonyms:

   summit, peak, zenith, climax

3. Astronomy. the position of a celestial body when it is on the meridian.

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culmination British  

/ ˌkʌlmɪˈneɪʃən /

noun

1. the final, highest, or decisive point

2. the act of culminating

3. astronomy the highest or lowest altitude attained by a heavenly body as it crosses the meridian

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonculmination
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• culminations
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of culmination

1625–35; < Medieval Latin culminātiōn-, stem of culminātiō; see culminate, -ion

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Explanation

The culmination is the end point or final stage of something you've been working toward or something that's been building up. The culmination of your high school career, for example, should be graduation day — and probably not prom night. A culmination isn't just the conclusion. It's the climax of the story, the final crowning achievement, the end result of years of research. “Life is a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter,” said Charles Lindbergh, the first solo pilot to fly nonstop across the Atlantic — a feat that was surely the culmination of his aviation career.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

culmination culminations

"It's a lot of surprises, a culmination of all those pieces that we've been putting together coming together," he says.

From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026

In many ways, “I Can’t Stop” represents a culmination of Hanawalt’s shtick for truth-telling via colorful anthropomorphized characters.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

What can look like a surprise candidacy to some is the culmination of years spent building relationships and registering voters.

From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2026

For Messing and his colleagues, the approval represents the culmination of more than 30 years of research, beginning with basic investigations into brain cell biology and eventually leading to a treatment for patients.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026

The night had been one that he had been looking forward to for so long, the culmination of months—of years—of work.

From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman

About 100 high school graduations and end-of-year culminations were scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, with graduation events continuing through June 16.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2025

Amazon’s fulfillment centers are one of the more disturbing culminations of this same mania for hyper-regulated efficiency at all costs.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 2, 2021

Both seasons are brutal, logical culminations of a series’ worth of conflict.

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2013

What’s really been happening is a series of culminations of parallel stories, worked out in parallel.

From New York Times ● Jun. 4, 2010

By it, with what follows it, are convey'd to mortal sense the culminations of the materialistic, the known, and a prophecy of the unknown.

From Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

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Related Words

• apex
• climax
• completion
• pinnacle

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