Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

“culminates” is a form of

culminate

UK /ˈkʌl.mɪ.neɪt/ · US /ˈkʌl.məˌneɪt/ verb, adjective

Forms culminates culminating culminated

  1. verb (intransitive, astronomy) Of a heavenly body, to be at the highest point, reach its greatest altitude.
  2. verb (intransitive) To reach the (physical or figurative) summit, highest point, peak etc. “The tower culminates in a point.”
  3. verb (intransitive, figuratively) To reach a climax; to come to a decisive point, especially an end or conclusion. “Their messy breakup culminated in a restraining order.”
  4. verb (US, military, of an offensive, etc) To reach a point at which continued progress is not possible.
  5. verb (transitive) To finalize, bring to a conclusion, form the climax of.
  6. adjective (anatomy) Relating to the culmen.
  7. adjective (biology) Growing upward, as opposed to lateral growth.

Synonyms

peak climax

Etymology

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.

First attested in 1846; by surface analysis, Latin culmen (oblique stem culmin-) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), see Etymology 1.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To reach its highest point of altitude; to come to the meridian; to be vertical or directly overhead.
  2. verb To reach the highest point, as of rank, size, power, numbers, etc. The reptile race culminated in the secondary era. Dana.
  3. adjective Growing upward, as distinguished from a laterral growth; --applied to the growth of corals. Dana.

Etymology [L. cuimen top or ridge. See Column.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “culminate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details