Relating to or causing a culmination; tending to reach a climax or highest point.
From culminate + -ive (adjective suffix meaning 'tending to'). This adjective form emerged in English during the 18th century as an analytic way to describe culminating processes.
In linguistics, 'culminative' has a special meaning—it describes aspects of language that emphasize completion or achievement, showing how words can inherit different specialized meanings in different fields.
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