accretion
See also: accrétion
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin accrētiō, from ad (“to”) + crēscō (“grow”). First attested in the 1610s. Compare crescent, increase, accrue, and so on.
Pronunciation
- (US) enPR: ŭkrēshən, IPA(key): /ə.ˈkɹi.ʃən/
- Rhymes: -iːʃən
Noun
accretion (countable and uncountable, plural accretions)
- The act of increasing by natural growth; especially the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.
- 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:
- There might have been a slight accretion of the moss and lichen on the shingled roof.
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- The act of increasing, or the matter added, by an accession of parts externally; an extraneous addition
- an accretion of earth
- A mineral ... augments not by growth, but by accretion.
- To strip off all the subordinate parts of his as a later accretion - George Cornewall Lewis
- Something added externally to promote growth the external growth of an item.
- Concretion; coherence of separate particles
- the accretion of particles so as to form a solid mass
- (biology) A growing together of parts naturally separate, as of the fingers or toes.
- (geology) The gradual increase of land by deposition of water-borne sediment.
- (law) The adhering of property to something else, by which the owner of one thing becomes possessed of a right to another; generally, gain of land by the washing up of sand or sail from the sea or a river, or by a gradual recession of the water from the usual watermark.
- (law) Gain to an heir or legatee; failure of a coheir to the same succession, or a co-legatee of the same thing, to take his share percentage.
Synonyms
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Antonyms
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Derived terms
- co-accretion
Related terms
Translations
act of increasing by natural growth
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References
- accretion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
Anagrams
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