cumulo-, cumul-, cumuli-

1. To collect or to obtain a large amount of something over a period of time.
2. To gather or to pile up; to amass.
3. Etymology: When, in colloquial speech, a man refers to the accumulating of a fortune as "making his pile", he is using exactly the same figurative language as that which first suggested the word accumulate.

Cumulus is Latin for "a heap" or "pile", and cumulare means "to pile up:. With the prefix ad, "to", we have accumulare, "to heap together", which is the source of our English word accumulate.

1. A process by which something increases in amount or is collected together over time: "When a person continues to put money into a bank account, the amount that builds up is the accumulation of his or her savings."

"If it is an interest bearing account, the interest will make the accumulation even larger."

2. Several things that are grouped together or which are considered as a whole.
3. The act of gathering or amassing, as into a heap or pile: "The accumulation of leaves blocked the drain pipe from the roof of the garage."

Tending to gather or to collect things.

Clouds that are formed of rounded in fleecy white or gray masses: "The altocumuli cloud elements usually are sharply outlined, but they may become partly fibrous or diffuse and they may or may not be merged together at an intermediate altitude of about 2400 to 6000 meters (8000 to 20 000 feet)."

1. Any increase in the concentration of a chemical in a biological organism over time, compared to the chemical's concentration in the environment.
2. An increase in the concentration of a pollutant from the environment to the first organism in a food chain.
3. The accumulation of chemicals by organisms present in the environment, most often expressed as the ratio of the concentration of a chemical in the organism to that in the medium, usually water.
4. The increasing concentration of a compound, usually applied to fat soluble pesticides; such as, DDT, in the bodies of living organisms at successively higher levels in the food chain.

Also known as: "biological amplification" and "biomagnification".

Plant or animal species that accumulates heavy metals or other environmental contaminants in its tissues, and can be used as an indicator of the presence of chronic pollution by these compounds, especially where amounts of pollutant in the environment are too low to be easily detectable.

The accumulation within living organisms of toxic substances occurring in the environment.