Culminate Meaning

/ˈkʌl.mɪ.neɪt/
C1

Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

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verbTo reach a final or highest point.

verbOf a heavenly body, to be at the highest point, reach its greatest altitude.

The festival will culminate in a fireworks display.
Years of research culminated in this discovery.
I hope this year will culminate in something good.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The series of events will ____ in a grand finale.

First attested in 1647; borrowed from Medieval Latin culminātus, perfect passive participle of culminō (“to crown”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from Latin culmen (“peak, highest point”, oblique stem culmin-) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), older form columen (“top, summit”), from Proto-Italic *kolamen, from a Proto-Indo-European base *kol-, *kelH- (“to project, rise; peak, summit, top”), whence also English hill and holm.

"As when his beams at noon / Culminate from the equator." — 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
"The type of Cycads culminated in the Mesozoic" — 1875, James Dwight Dana, Manual of Geology:
"The house of Burgundy was rapidly culminating." — 1856, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
"This culminates in a timetable change in December 2020, at which point EMR will introduce a sixth train each hour out of St Pancras." — 2019 October, Tony Miles, Philip Sherratt, “EMR kicks off new era”, in Modern Railways, page 53:
"Mr. Bush has been marking the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11 with a series of speeches about terrorism that culminated with his televised address last night." — 2006 September 12, “President Bush’s Reality”, in New York Times:

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The series of events will ____ in a grand finale.

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