cumulate
verb
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Cumulate and its far more common relative accumulate both come from the Latin word cumulare, meaning "to heap up." Cumulare, in turn, comes from cumulus, meaning "mass." (Cumulus functions as an English word in its own right as well. It can mean "heap" or "accumulation," or it can refer to a kind of dense puffy cloud with a flat base and rounded outlines.) Cumulate and accumulate overlap in meaning, but you're likely to find cumulate mostly in technical contexts. The word's related adjective, cumulative, however, is used more widely.
Examples of cumulate in a Sentence
Bill Conerly, Forbes.com, 27 May 2025
Beijing has ramped up economic support since late September, but measures so far have not cumulated in the large-scale stimulus that many investors have hoped for.
—Evelyn Cheng,anniek Bao, CNBC, 28 Apr. 2025
Trump’s policies, the model calculates, will cumulate to $5.8 trillion more over this period.
—Milton Ezrati, Forbes, 24 Oct. 2024
Kononenko cumulated the days in space over several missions.
—Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 5 June 2024
Mary Walrath-Holdridge An Ohio town took celebrating the total solar eclipse to a level above barbecues and tailgates on Tuesday, instead hosting one huge eclipse party that cumulated in over 100 marriages and vow renewals.
—USA TODAY, 9 Apr. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Cumulate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cumulate. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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