Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of verb culminate

5 senses of culminate

Sense 1
culminate, climax -- (end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage; "The meeting culminated in a tearful embrace")
       => end, stop, finish, terminate, cease -- (have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical; "the bronchioles terminate in a capillary bed"; "Your rights stop where you infringe upon the rights of other"; "My property ends by the bushes"; "The symphony ends in a pianissimo")

Sense 2
culminate -- (bring to a head or to the highest point; "Seurat culminated pointillism")
       => end, terminate -- (bring to an end or halt; "She ended their friendship when she found out that he had once been convicted of a crime"; "The attack on Poland terminated the relatively peaceful period after WW I")

Sense 3
culminate -- (reach the highest or most decisive point)
       => achieve, accomplish, attain, reach -- (to gain with effort; "she achieved her goal despite setbacks")

Sense 4
culminate -- (reach the highest altitude or the meridian, of a celestial body)
       => reach, make, attain, hit, arrive at, gain -- (reach a destination, either real or abstract; "We hit Detroit by noon"; "The water reached the doorstep"; "We barely made it to the finish line"; "I have to hit the MAC machine before the weekend starts")

Sense 5
culminate -- (rise to, or form, a summit; "The helmet culminated in a crest")
       => form -- (assume a form or shape; "the water formed little beads")