accretion

Accretion means an extension or addition of length or overall size.

(noun)

An example of an accretion is when a highway is lengthened.

Accretion is defined as the part of something that has been added.

(noun)

An example of an accretion is the garage someone may build on his home.

The definition of accretion is the state of having gone through extension or addition of length or overall size.

(noun)

An example of accretion is a extra part of a fairy tale added over many years of re-telling.

See accretion in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

Origin: L accretio < accrescere, to increase < ad-, to + crescere, to grow: see crescent

Related Forms:

See accretion in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

a. Growth or increase in size by gradual external addition, fusion, or inclusion.
b. Something contributing to such growth or increase: “the accretions of paint that had buried the door's details like snow” (Christopher Andreae).
Biology The growing together or adherence of parts that are normally separate.
Geology
a. Slow addition to land by deposition of water-borne sediment.
b. An increase of land along the shores of a body of water, as by alluvial deposit.
Astronomy An increase in the mass of a celestial object by the collection of surrounding interstellar gases and objects by gravity.