APA Dictionary of Psychology

a running total of how often specific values occur. Cumulative frequencies are used in descriptive statistics when listing the number of participants who fall into each of several categories of a variable that can be ordered from low to high. For example, if test scores in a particular classroom are 1 F, 2 Ds, 4 Cs, 3 Bs, and 2 As, the cumulative frequency is obtained by successively adding the number of students at each score from an F to an A. Thus, the cumulative frequency values from the lowest to the highest would be 1, 3, 7, 10, and 12 for F, D, C, B, and A, respectively. See also cumulative frequency distribution.