accretion.

1. The gradual buildup of a body or deposit through the addition of surrounding material.

2. The gradual enlargement of something through successive additions rather than a single planned change.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• accretion disk
• stellar accretion

On the page

Dust fed the young star through an accretion disk.

Repeated accretion enlarged the rocky body.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Usually uncountable; plural: accretions for separate accumulated deposits. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.