accretion

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: ac=cre=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

accretion, n. [L. accretio, fr. accrescere to increase. Cf. Crescent, Increase, Accrue.].

•  The act of increasing by natural growth; esp. the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.  Arbuthnot.  [1913 Webster]
•  The act of increasing, or the matter added, by an accession of parts externally; an extraneous addition; as, an accretion of earth.  [1913 Webster]

  "A mineral . . . augments not by growth, but by accretion."  [1913 Webster]

  "To strip off all the subordinate parts of his narrative as a later accretion."  [1913 Webster]
•  Concretion; coherence of separate particles; as, the accretion of particles so as to form a solid mass.  [1913 Webster]
•  A growing together of parts naturally separate, as of the fingers or toes.  Dana.  [1913 Webster]
•  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 soil from the sea or a river, or by a gradual recession of the water from the usual watermark.  Wharton. Kent.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

accretion, n.
1 growth by organic enlargement.
2 a the growing of separate things into one. b the product of such growing.
3 a extraneous matter added to anything. b the adhesion of this.
4 Law a = ACCESSION. b the increase of a legacy etc. by the share of a failing co-legatee.

Derivative

accretive adj.

Etymology

L accretio (as ACCRETE)

ROGET THESAURUS

accretion

Increase

N increase, augmentation, enlargement, extension, dilatation, increment, accretion, accession, development, growth, aggrandizement, aggravation, rise, ascent, exaggeration exacerbation, spread, flood tide, gain, produce, product, profit, increased, on the increase, undiminished, additional, crescendo, vires acquirit eundo.

Expansion

N expansion, increase of size, enlargement, extension, augmentation, amplification, ampliation, aggrandizement, spread, increment, growth, development, pullulation, swell, dilation, rarefaction, turgescence, turgidness, turgidity, dispansion, obesity, hydrocephalus, hydrophthalmus, dropsy, tumefaction, intumescence, swelling, tumor, diastole, distension, puffing, puffiness, inflation, pandiculation, dilatability, expansibility, germination, growth, upgrowth, accretion, budding, gemmation, overgrowth, overdistension, hypertrophy, tympany, bulb, plumper, superiority of size, big bang, Hubble constant, expanded larger, &c (large), swollen, expansive, wide open, wide spread, flabelliform, overgrown, exaggerated, bloated, fat, turgid, tumid, hypertrophied, dropsical, pot bellied, swag bellied, edematous, oedematous, obese, puffy, pursy, blowzy, bigswoln, distended, patulous, bulbous, full blown, full grown, full formed, big, abdominous, enchymatous, rhipidate, tumefacient, tumefying.