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Glite Dictionary
🏆 The highest point 🌌 Highest sky point
culmination

culmination

7.5
The moment a star or planet reaches its highest point above the horizon
  • noun
  • /ˌkʌl.məˈneɪ.ʃən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : culminación
  • The culmination of the observation occurred when the Moon reached its highest point in the sky.

Examples

  • As the Sun moved toward its culmination, astronomers noted its precise position in the sky.

  • At the culmination of our attack, standing at the observation posts and looking back at our cells, a strange quietude gripped us.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Russ has reached a sort of culmination; this is his highest point above the old horizon line, and it's only natural for him to wonder how he got to be sitting here in a television-blue shirt, careful not to talk too much.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The Space Telescope represents the culmination of astronomers' dreams, the fulfillment of hopes borne for a generation or more, ever since the time that rockets first offered us the chance to place instruments above the veil of the Earth's atmosphere.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The culmination of the planet's visible journey marks the moment it is highest above the horizon.

Surface Forms

culmination singular
culminations plural

Morphology

culmination = culminate (transparent) = culminate + ion

Formed by nouning the verb 'culminate'; the astronomical sense is a domain-specific application of 'reaching the highest point'.

Etymology

Culmination comes from the same root culmen, 'top' or 'summit', and in astronomy it names the moment a star or planet reaches its highest point above the horizon, when it is literally 'at the top' of the sky.