culmination
/ˌkʌl.mɪˈneɪ.ʃən/
"culmination" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“culmination” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #20,599 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #20,599
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | culmination |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌkʌl.mɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #20,599 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “culmination” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for culmination is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌkʌl.mɪˈneɪ.ʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #20,599 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for culmination, with forms such as "cculmination", "clumination", and "culimnation". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "cultivation", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French culmination, from culminer, or from Medieval Latin culminatus + -tion. Morphologically culminate + -ion. The correct English form is culmination, spelled C-U-L-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit.
- 2An endpoint arrived at after some series of actions or events, or some period, usually after the series or period has ended. The sum of something.
- 3An attainment or arrival at the highest pitch of glory, power, etc.
- 4A ceremony marking the completion of studies at an elementary school, middle school or junior high school.
Etymology
Borrowed from French culmination, from culminer, or from Medieval Latin culminatus + -tion. Morphologically culminate + -ion.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cculmination,clumination,culimnation,cullmination,culmiantion,culminaiton,culminasion,culminatino,culminationn,culminatoin,culminattion,culminnation,culmintaion,culmmination,culmniation,cumlination,uclmination
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of culmination - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "culmination"?
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Using “culmination”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-U-L-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌkʌl.mɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cultivation” - see the side-by-side comparison. culmination vs cultivation
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.