Meaning & use
cumulative
Last updated
Increasing or building up through successive additions over time.
See it in a sentence
The cumulative effect of years of small savings finally added up to a real nest egg.
Her final grade is based on cumulative scores from every test that semester.
A note on using this word
Useful for describing effects that only become significant when many small instances are added together, as in 'cumulative damage' or 'cumulative GPA.'
Words with a similar meaning
accumulatedaggregate
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Words with an opposite meaning
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