Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Accumulative \Ac*cu"mu*la*tive\, a. Characterized by accumulation; serving to collect or amass; cumulative; additional. -- Ac*cu"mu*la*tive*ly, adv. -- Ac*cu"mu*la*tive*ness, n.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Characterized by accumulation; serving to collect or amass; cumulative; additional. 2 Having a propensity to amass; acquisitive.
WordNet
adj. increasing by successive addition; "the benefits are cumulative"; "the eventual accumulative effect of these substances" [syn: cumulative]
marked by acquiring or amassing; "we live in an accumulative society"
Usage examples of "accumulative".
Over all these causes of Change I am convinced that the accumulative action of Selection, whether applied methodically and more quickly, or unconsciously and more slowly, but more efficiently, is by far the predominant Power.
When a variation is of the slightest use to a being, we cannot tell how much of it to attribute to the accumulative action of natural selection, and how much to the conditions of life.
But after the dread feeling of worry and want was finally eradicated from his mind by the abolition of the individual accumulative system, he then began to apply himself carefully to physical development, and as running, jumping and acrobatic work have the best symmetrical effects upon the human form, this kind of exercise was extensively followed, and as each generation succeeded in outdoing the feats of the preceding one, the entire nation finally evolved into one of extraordinary springing propensities.
Was it because the people themselves, through their individual accumulative system, created conditions whereby only the most abject and debased mortals could survive?
Cynthia Cornball, a 49-year-old Bay Area artist, the idea of painting as an accumulative, notational process paralleling the mundaneness, tragedies and passing thoughts of every-day life is initially quite engaging.
Over all these causes of Change I am convinced that the accumulative action of Selection, whether applied methodically and more quickly, or unconsciously and more slowly, but more efficiently, is by far the predominant Power.
When a variation is of the slightest use to a being, we cannot tell how much of it to attribute to the accumulative action of natural selection, and how much to the conditions of life.