culminate
verb (used without object)
to reach the highest point, summit, or highest development (usually followed by in).
had culminated
-
past perfectof culminate.past perfect
Used to express a completed action that took place before another specific past action occurred.
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.
Ahead of a visit Thursday to Melbourne, Herzog told Channel Seven's Sunrise a "wave" of anti-Jewish hatred in Australia had culminated in the December 14 Bondi killings.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026
A five-year legal battle had culminated in the Court of Appeal finding his conviction unsafe.
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2025
He was responding to nearly a century of philosophical, scientific, and technical advances in Central and Western Europe that, he felt, had culminated in his own lifetime in a more enlightened and just age.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020
Poland’s successful Solidarity movement, which had culminated in a semi-free election that year, was one.
From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2019
All his work since then had culminated in a factory that could irradiate two hundred tons of uranium at a time to produce a half pound of plutonium every two hundred days.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
