| Library / English Dictionary |
ACCRETION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(law) an increase in a beneficiary's share in an estate (as when a co-beneficiary dies or fails to meet some condition or rejects the inheritance)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
Hypernyms ("accretion" is a kind of...):
heritage; inheritance (that which is inherited; a title or property or estate that passes by law to the heir on the death of the owner)
Domain category:
jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)
Derivation:
accretionary (marked or produced by accretion)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An increase by natural growth or addition
Synonyms:
accretion; accumulation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("accretion" is a kind of...):
growth; increase; increment (a process of becoming larger or longer or more numerous or more important)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "accretion"):
backup (an accumulation caused by clogging or a stoppage)
buildup (the result of the process of accumulation)
deposit; deposition (the natural process of laying down a deposit of something)
Derivation:
accrete (grow or become attached by accretion)
accretionary (marked or produced by accretion)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(geology) an increase in land resulting from alluvial deposits or waterborne sediment
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("accretion" is a kind of...):
growth; increase; increment (a process of becoming larger or longer or more numerous or more important)
Domain category:
geology (a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks)
Derivation:
accretionary (marked or produced by accretion)
Sense 4
Meaning:
(biology) growth by addition as by the adhesion of parts or particles
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("accretion" is a kind of...):
growth; increase; increment (a process of becoming larger or longer or more numerous or more important)
Domain category:
biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)
Derivation:
accrete (grow or become attached by accretion)
accretionary (marked or produced by accretion)
Sense 5
Meaning:
(astronomy) the formation of a celestial object by the effect of gravity pulling together surrounding objects and gases
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("accretion" is a kind of...):
growth; increase; increment (a process of becoming larger or longer or more numerous or more important)
Domain category:
astronomy; uranology (the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole)
Derivation:
accretionary (marked or produced by accretion)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Something contributing to growth or increase
Example:
the central city surrounded by recent accretions
Classified under:
Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
Hypernyms ("accretion" is a kind of...):
addition; gain; increase (a quantity that is added)
Derivation:
accretionary (marked or produced by accretion)
Context examples:
Though brown dwarfs were theorized in the 1960s and confirmed in 1995, there is not an accepted explanation of how they form: like a star, by the contraction of gas, or like a planet, by the accretion of material in a protoplanetary disk?
(NASA’s Webb Telescope to Investigate Mysterious Brown Dwarfs, NASA)
The gas makes a kind of eclipse between Earth and the accretion disk, casting lines onto the disk’s spectrum of radiation.
(Astronomers Study How Quasars Are Powered by Accretion Disks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Researchers found evidence of more massive accretion onto the Earth than previously thought after the Moon’s formation.
(NASA-funded Simulations Show How Massive Collisions Delivered Metal to Early Earth, NASA)
This ‘super-solar’ abundance is thought to have originated when the planets were being formed, and large amounts of ice, rocks and other particles were brought into the planet in a process called accretion.
(Water common – yet scarce – in exoplanets, University of Cambridge)
Instead, researchers monitor for gas falling into the accretion disk that may pass through their line of sight.
(Astronomers Study How Quasars Are Powered by Accretion Disks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
This discrepancy can most easily be explained by late accretion after core formation was complete.
(NASA-funded Simulations Show How Massive Collisions Delivered Metal to Early Earth, NASA)
Astronomers are studying quasars to see if and how accretion disks are fueled with external mass.
(Astronomers Study How Quasars Are Powered by Accretion Disks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
The interstellar gas cannot be observed directly, as its radiation signature is overwhelmed by the accretion disk’s brightness.
(Astronomers Study How Quasars Are Powered by Accretion Disks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
An accretion disk is a spiraling mass of material centered around a monumental source of gravity consuming interstellar material–what researchers have theorized is a black hole.
(Astronomers Study How Quasars Are Powered by Accretion Disks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
As the most luminous steady beacons in the Universe, quasars are believed to be powered by an accretion disk around the central black hole.
(Astronomers Study How Quasars Are Powered by Accretion Disks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
