Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The position of a heavenly body when it is on the meridian; the attainment by a star of its highest or lowest altitude on any day.
  • noun The highest point or summit; the top; the act or fact of reaching the highest point: used especially in figurative senses.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit.
  • noun Attainment or arrival at the highest pitch of glory, power, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun astronomy The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit.
  • noun Attainment or arrival at the highest pitch of glory, power, etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a final climactic stage
  • noun the decisive moment in a novel or play
  • noun (astronomy) a heavenly body's highest celestial point above an observer's horizon
  • noun a concluding action

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word culmination.

Examples

  • This was truer than Judis realized, for he seemed not quite to grasp that a culmination is the reaching of the highest point.

    Donk Depression James Taranto 2010

  • The iPad, which they called the culmination of an approach that he has seemingly been perfecting for his entire career.

    Obama: Steve Jobs Deserves His Wealth The Huffington Post 2010

  • The iPad, which they called the culmination of an approach that he has seemingly been perfecting for his entire career.

    Obama: Steve Jobs Deserves His Wealth The Huffington Post 2010

  • "Embassytown" might be called the culmination of these interests: For his eighth novel he has created a new city on a new world in a new universe, one underpinned by the immer, a "big and tidal quiddity" where normal rules of space and time do not apply and which ships cross to travel between planets.

    Full Immersion Lucy Dallas 2011

  • The culmination is its avowedly "apolitical" Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on the Mall on Saturday.

    Jon Stewart, President Obama debate on 'The Daily Show' Dan Zak 2010

  • Although these physical attributes are shared by other Oriental and also by the Latin races, they reach a climax in the Jewish type, which in its culmination is unsympathetic to the Anglo-Saxon, the Oriental, or the Latin people.

    The Social Disability of the Jew 1969

  • Although these physical attributes are shared by other Oriental and also by the Latin races, they reach a climax in the Jewish type, which in its culmination is unsympathetic to the Anglo-Saxon, the Oriental, or the Latin people.

    The Social Disability of the Jew 1908

  • Its culmination is expressed in the proverb: "A woman should leave her home but three times, – when she is christened, when she is married, and when she is buried."

    Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution 1898

  • In a show of how much IBM has bought into the cloud, the company has announced something that it calls the culmination of more than 10 years of software management best practices.

    The Register 2009

  • The culmination will be a live performance Saturday by the rapper Fabolous.

    Hot Spot Tenjune Reveals Facelift 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.