culmination

American  

[kuhl-muh-ney-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

Etymology

Origin of culmination

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

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

These milestones were the culmination of Parks' tireless lobbying; the debt to him was formally acknowledged in 2010 when he became the first wheelchair athlete to be inducted into tennis' Hall of Fame.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

Instead, Alfonzo’s first appearance, the culmination of nine tireless years, was somber in the Dodgers’ 5-2 loss to the Padres.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026

The incident occurred a day after China put in force a law viewed as the culmination of a long-running campaign to assimilate the country’s ethnic minorities.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026

Regulators have been working on finalizing new capital standards for banks for years, the culmination of an international effort to harmonize capital requirements after the 2008 financial crisis.

From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026

Her family’s distress increased in the late 1890s as the U.S. government intensified its push for the culmination of its assimilation campaign: allotment.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

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

I think it’s because of a writerly trick that Beard uses in each of these stories, which has the effect of making the deaths proper culminations of the pieces in which they appear.

From Slate ● Mar. 19, 2021

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 Whitman, Walt

Related Words

• apex
• climax
• completion
• pinnacle