accretion
/əˈkɹiʃən/
Frequency: 2.78 in modern English
Meaning
noun
Increase by natural growth, especially the gradual increase of organic bodies by the internal addition of matter; organic growth; also, the amount of such growth.
Uncountable
noun
(Gradual) increase by an external addition of matter; (countable) an instance of this.
Uncountable
noun
(Gradual) increase by an external addition of matter; (countable) an instance of this.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Followed by of: external addition of matter to a thing which causes it to grow, especially in amount or size.
Uncountable
noun
The process of separate particles aggregating or coalescing together; concretion; (countable) a thing formed in this manner.
Uncountable
noun
The process of separate particles aggregating or coalescing together; concretion; (countable) a thing formed in this manner.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Warwick was unable to perceive much change in the market-house. […] There might have been a slight accretion of the moss and lichen on the shingled roof."
- "The immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava on a doomed city had changed her from a plump active little woman with a neatly-turned foot and ankle into something as vast and august as a natural phenomenon."
- "Near-synonym: accumulation"
- "A mineral augments not by growth, but by accretion."
- "[…] Plants doe nouriſh; Inanimate Bodies doe not: They haue an Accretion, but no Alimentation."
- "God hath from the beginning made all the Kindes of Hard, and Heavie, and Diaphanous Bodies that are, and of ſuch Figure and magnitude as he thought fit; but hovv ſmall ſoever, they may by accretion become greater in the Mine, or perhaps by generation, though vve knovv not hovv."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *ḱer-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈkɹiʃən/
- British English: /əˈkɹiːʃn̩/