Sample sentences for CUMULATIVE

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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.

cumulative = enlarged by a series of additions over time

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.

cumulative = increased by a series of additions over time

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

cumulative = added to the total each time

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

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