culmination

American  

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

noun

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

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

In retirement he researched and wrote a book, “The Culmination of Conflict: The Ukrainian-Polish Civil War and the Expulsion of Ukrainians After the Second World War.”

From Washington Post • Oct. 14, 2020

Culmination came with the 800-place banquet, held like most Hollywood shindigs in the Biltmore Hotel Bowl.

From Time Magazine Archive

Culmination, involves the painter in great difficulties, for there must be culmination, while an effect in the wrong place may destroy the balance of his work.

From A Novelist on Novels by George, Walter Lionel

Culmination, the passage of a heavenly body across the meridian or south point of a place; it is the highest point reached in its path.

From Recreations in Astronomy With Directions for Practical Experiments and Telescopic Work by Warren, Henry White

Culmination of the Renaissance and the Reformation.—We have seen that the Renaissance began in Italy in the fourteenth century and influenced the work of Chaucer.

From Halleck's New English Literature by Halleck, Reuben Post

Related Words

• apex
• climax
• completion
• pinnacle