cumulative

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: cu=mu=la=tive

CIDE DICTIONARY

cumulative, a. [Cf. F. cumulatif.].

•  Composed of parts in a heap; forming a mass; aggregated.  Bacon  [1913 Webster]
•  Augmenting, gaining, or giving force, by successive additions; as, a cumulative argument, i. e., one whose force increases as the statement proceeds.  [1913 Webster]

  "The argument . . . is in very truth not logical and single, but moral and cumulative."  [1913 Webster]
•  Tending to prove the same point to which other evidence has been offered; -- said of evidence.  Bouvier. Wharton.  [1913 Webster]

Cumulative action (Med.), that action of certain drugs, by virtue of which they produce, when administered in small doses repeated at considerable intervals, the same effect as if given in a single large dose. -- Cumulative poison, a poison the action of which is cumulative. -- Cumulative vote or Cumulative system of voting (Politics), that system which allows to each voter as many votes as there are persons to be voted for, and permits him to accumulate these votes upon one person, or to distribute them among the candidates as he pleases.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

cumulative, adj.
1 a increasing or increased in amount, force, etc., by successive additions (cumulative evidence). b formed by successive additions (learning is a cumulative process).
2 Stock Exch. (of shares) entitling holders to arrears of interest before any other distribution is made.

Idiom

cumulative error an error that increases with the size of the sample revealing it. cumulative voting a system in which each voter has as many votes as there are candidates and may give all to one candidate.

Derivative

cumulatively adv. cumulativeness n.

THESAURUS

cumulative

absolute, accumulated, accumulative, additional, additive, additory, adducible, admissible, advancing, amassed, attestative, attestive, authentic, based on, certain, chain, circumstantial, conclusive, convincing, damning, decisive, determinative, documentary, documented, evidential, evidentiary, ex parte, eye-witness, factual, final, firsthand, founded on, grounded on, hearsay, heightening, implicit, incontrovertible, increasing, indicative, indisputable, intensifying, irrefutable, irresistible, magnifying, material, multiplying, nuncupative, overall, overwhelming, presumptive, probative, reliable, significant, snowballing, suggestive, summational, summative, sure, symptomatic, telling, total, valid, weighty