culminate
v.to reach the highest point or the final result of a long process. You use this when something has been building up and finally finishes with a big event.
v.to reach a final or highest point; to result in a specific conclusion after a period of development. Often used in the passive voice to describe the end of a series of events.
“The festival will culminate in a large fireworks display.”
“After months of intense research and preparation, the team's efforts will culminate in the final presentation to the board.”
“The author's career, which began in obscure literary journals, eventually culminated in a prestigious national award and a permanent place in the university's curriculum.”
“Few suspected, though, the chaos that was about to unspool at Chelsea, culminating with Mourinho’s dismissal that December.”
“Keely Hodgkinson has been here before - and it eventually culminated in her crowning moment.”
Common in culture and sport writing
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, the highest point”), 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; borrowed from Medieval Latin culminātus, see Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.