accretion

Meaning

Noun

• The act of increasing by natural growth; especially the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.
• The act of increasing, or the matter added, by an accession of parts externally; an extraneous addition
• Something added externally to promote growth the external growth of an item.
• Concretion; coherence of separate particles
• A growing together of parts naturally separate, as of the fingers or toes.
• The gradual increase of land by deposition of water-borne sediment.
• 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.
• 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.

Related

Similar words

• growth

Opposite words

• decay
• erosion
• attrition

Origin

• Borrowed from Latin accrētiō, from ad + crēscō. First attested in the 1610s. Compare crescent, increase, accrue, and so on.