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Definition
increased by a series of additions over time- The benefits are cumulative.
cumulative = increase through a series of additions over time
- Not one of her actions was so terrible by itself, but she was fired because of her cumulative record of small infractions.
- At my company, sick days are not cumulative. They say "Thank you," but you lose days you do not use by the end of the year.
- So, at the age of twelve, I had my name entered four times. Once, because I had to, and three times for tesserae for grain and oil for myself, Prim, and my mother. In fact, every year I have needed to do this. And the entries are cumulative. So now, at the age of sixteen, my name will be in the reaping twenty times.Suzanne Collins -- The Hunger Games
- The "Total" column represents their cumulative classroom learning from all five years of elementary school.Malcolm Gladwell -- Outliers
- It was cumulative injury, so each bang was tolerable.Susanna Kaysen -- Girl Interrupted
- The cumulative cost was ridiculous, and Alex tried to make them last by insisting they do other things as well.Nicholas Sparks -- Safe Haven
- If it's finely calculated the cumulative effect is enormous."Douglas Adams -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- It was the cumulative effect of several sleepless nights.Boris Pasternak -- Doctor Zhivago
- Tendinitis and cumulative trauma disorders are also quite common.Eric Schlosser -- Fast Food Nation
- But the cumulative effect of those spots ... it's like watching Jimmy Carter saying, "I'll never lie to you".'Stephen King -- Cujo
- He had a cumulative GPA of 1.Michael Lewis -- The Blind Side
- It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing.C.S. Lewis -- The Screwtape Letters
- Cumulatively, these bites aroused him and enraged him, goaded him.Ian McEwan -- Atonement
- Cumulatively, it seemed like a lot of dishonesty, enough so that I found myself wanting to keep my word whenever possible.Sarah Dessen -- Just Listen
- The sorrowful demeanor, the tremolo music, the long, explanatory, cumulative addresses, all were there.Theodore Dreiser -- Sister Carrie
- I have as yet little to report, but as the methods I am employing are gradual and cumulative in their effects, I did not expect rapid results.Margaret Atwood -- Alias Grace
- None of these misreadings is very gross in itself, but their cumulative effect is to exaggerate the psychological incoherence of the play.George Orwell -- Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool
- The force of character is cumulative.Ralph Waldo Emerson -- Selected Essays
- What he desires is to absorb as many lives as he can, and he has laid himself out to achieve it in a cumulative way.Bram Stoker -- Dracula
cumulative = enlarged by a series of additions over time
cumulative = increased by a series of additions over time
cumulative = added to the total each time