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culminate

cul·mi·nate

UK/ˈkʌlmɪnət/ US/ˈkəlmənət/ fairly common us

verb

1.

end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage

  • “The meeting culminated in a tearful embrace”
Synonyms
2.

bring to a head or to the highest point

  • “Seurat culminated pointillism”
3.

reach the highest or most decisive point

4.
5.

rise to, or form, a summit

  • “The helmet culminated in a crest”

Origin

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.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.