To gather or collect more and more of something over time.
From Latin *accumulare* “to heap up,” from *ad-* “to” and *cumulus* “heap, pile.” It originally described piling things up into a mound.
Dust, data, and debt all accumulate the same way: a little here, a little there, until the pile is hard to ignore. The word is a quiet warning that small, repeated actions—good or bad—eventually turn into big heaps.
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