Word of the Day for Thursday, July 11, 2013
accrete \uh-KREET\, verb:
1. to grow together; adhere (usually followed by to).
2. to add, as by growth.
2. to add, as by growth.
adjective:
1. Botany. grown together.
1. Botany. grown together.
Most things accrete that don't gradually crumble, rust or evaporate.
-- Iain M. Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata, 2012
...a long history, in the course of which it seems to grow, to accrete difficulties, and to merge and overlap with other problems, so that an attempt to solve the single problem appears hopeless without an assault…
-- Renata Adler, Pitch Dark, 1983
Entering English in the late 1700s, accrete is a backformation of the noun accretion from the Latin word accrēscere meaning "to grow."
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