accremental

English

Etymology

From Latin accrēmentum (to increase or grow) + -al

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌækrɪˈmɛn.tl̩/

Adjective

accremental (comparative more accremental, superlative most accremental)

1. (biology) Related to growth or increase by successive additions, particularly in size or volume, often through the gradual deposition of material. This term is used to describe processes or structures that grow by accretion, such as the formation of shells, tree rings, or the buildup of biological tissues.
   • 1904 December [1904 August 2], Jos. C Verco, M.D., “Notes on South Australian Marine Mollusca, with Descriptions of New Species, Part I.”, in Walter Howchin, editor, TRANSACTIONS of the ROYAL SOCIETY of SOUTH AUSTRALIA., volume XXVIII, page 143:

     There are moderately developed accremental striæ, which become ruder and rounder on the free tube.

   • 1982, Zygmunt Bauman, Memories of Class (Routledge Revivals): The Pre-history and After-life of Class (International library of sociology), Routledge, page 4:

     The factor mainly responsible for the crisis (an interruption in the gradual, accremental change when the extant institutions absorb new conditions, modifying in the process in a fashion not suddent enough to be perceived as revolutionary) in Western Europe which was to lead eventually to the articulation of class society was the demographic explosion of the eighteenth century.

   • 2024 June 30, Wikipedia contributors, “Callistele calliston”, in English Wikipedia‎^[1], Wikimedia Foundation:

     They are crossed by oblique crowded accremental striae, producing sublenticular pitting.