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The erosive process that wears away a glacier is also known as ablation.
If someone in authority abolishes a law or practice, they formally put an end to it.
If you abridge a book or play, you make it shorter by making cuts to the original.
An addendum is an additional section added to the end of a book, document, or speech that gives more information.
An adherent is a supporter or follower of a leader or a cause.
An adjunct is something that is added to or joined to something else that is larger or more important.
Something that happens unexpectedly and by chance that is not inherent or natural to a given item or situation is adventitious, such as a root appearing in an unusual place on a plant.
To agglomerate a group of things is to gather them together without any noticeable order.
An aggregate is the final or sum total after many different amounts or scores have been added together.
When two or more things, such as organizations, amalgamate, they combine to become one large thing.
When something is ancillary to something else, such as a workbook to a textbook, it supports it but is less important than that which it supports.
An appurtenance is a supporting feature, form of equipment, or item associated with a particular activity.
Attrition is the process of gradually decreasing the strength of something (such as an enemy force) by continually attacking it.
To augment something is to increase its value or effectiveness by adding something to it.
If liquid coagulates, it becomes thick and solid.
Something is concomitant when it happens at the same time as something else and is connected with it in some fashion.
If you conflate two or more descriptions or ideas, you combine them in order to produce a single unit.
When a liquid congeals, it becomes very thick and sticky, almost like a solid.
If something, such as a sound, is undergoing a crescendo, it is getting louder and louder or increasing in intensity and is about to reach its peak strength.
A diminution of something is a reduction in the size, number, or importance of it.
Discrete objects are completely unconnected to one another, so each one is separate and individual.
When something disintegrates, it crumbles, falls apart, or breaks down into separate pieces.
When you dismantle something, you break it down into its parts or destroy it gradually by taking away key aspects of it.
When you dispel a thought from your mind, you cause it to go away or vanish; when you dispel a crowd, you cause it to scatter into different directions.
To disseminate something, such as knowledge or information, is to distribute it so that it reaches a lot of people.
When something dissipates, it either disappears because it is driven away or it is completely used up in some way—sometimes wastefully.
Dissolution is the breaking up or official end of a group, such as a couple or institution; it can also be the act of separating something into smaller components.
To efface something is to erase or remove it completely from recognition or memory.
An entourage is a group of assistants, servants, and other people who tag along with an important person.
When something erodes, it wears away or is slowly and gradually destroyed.
When you excise something, you remove it by cutting it out.
When you incorporate something into something else, you add it or combine it with that thing so that it becomes a part of it.
When you integrate things, you bring them together so that they fit as a whole.
To pare something down is to reduce or lessen it.
To rarefy is also to purify something or refine it, making it less ordinary or commonplace.
Sporadic occurrences happen from time to time but not at constant or regular intervals.
Noun
accretion
uh-KREE-shuhn
Context
The accretion of water droplets gradually filling the tin bucket echoed in the attic room. Such accretion was the result of a heavy rain slowly leaking through the faulty roof. As the droplets accreted, Tina thought it time to empty the bucket, as it was almost full. She didn’t mind the accretion or building-up of rainwater in the bucket as long as it didn’t spill onto the floor.
Quiz:Try again!
What is an example of accretion?
A flash flood during a heavy downpour of rain.
The gradual build-up of sediment in a river delta.
Shun Concrete The gradual accretion of roads in the growing city, fueled by their primary material, concrete, encouraged some nature lovers to "shun" the area and move to the country.
Examples
The result is a statistical accretion of what people — those beings who clack away at the keys — are looking for, a rough sense of what their language means.
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Newsvine
The earlier announcement had not included the 1.8 million shares issued in the Company’s March 2004 follow-on offering in calculating the accretion to diluted earnings per share the Company expects to realize from the acquisition.
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BNET
Dr. Begelman of Colorado cautioned that some entirely different effect could yet be behind the new discovery around neutron stars, like wave motions that relativity theory predicts should also exist in the accretion disk.
—
The New York Times
Favored primarily by the change in the rule code, Yale football interests will also be advanced by the accretion of a promising batch of fresh material this season.
—
The New York Times
Accretion is the act or state of growing towards a greater whole.
Word Theater
Rime Growth Water in the form of ice undergoing accretion on a rod.
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Related Words
addendum ·
adherent ·
adjunct ·
adventitious ·
agglomerate ·
aggregate ·
amalgamate ·
ancillary ·
appurtenance ·
augment ·
coagulate ·
concomitant ·
conflate ·
congeal ·
crescendo ·
entourage ·
incorporate+ ·
integrate+ ·
ablation ·
abolish ·
abridge ·
attrition ·
diminution ·
discrete+ ·
disintegrate+ ·
dismantle+ ·
dispel+ ·
disseminate ·
dissipate+ ·
dissolution ·
efface ·
erode+ ·
excise ·
pare ·
rarefy ·
sporadic ·
Similar sense
Opposite sense
Word Variants
accrete
v
→
to add new things to create something larger
The section lists important variants and alternate definitions of the headword. Knowing variants will often help you both remember and understand the word. Not all variants are listed - only the ones we think that are important for you to know.