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

He called his move to Old Trafford "the culmination of years of dedication since I first fell in love with football" and said signing for "such a special club" like United "feels incredible".

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

It’s the grunting culmination of a love affair that began when Higdon, a retired cancer surgeon, encountered a line of yaks in Nepal not far from Mt.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026

First, it was the culmination of the most profound demographic growth in the history of entertainment.

From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026

“This extraordinary residence represents the culmination of that passion: a Napa-inspired estate that embodies everything she loved most about residential design,” the listing goes on.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 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

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

Mr. McCain does not expect the health care vote to be the culminations of his congressional career, which began when he won a House seat in 1982.

From New York Times ● Jul. 25, 2017

So that the good old tradition of marriage for better or worse holds inexorably for him, and things work up to tragic culminations.

From The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Related Words

• apex
• climax
• completion
• pinnacle