ACCRETION

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does accretion mean? 

• ACCRETION (noun)
  The noun ACCRETION has 6 senses:

1. an increase by natural growth or addition

2. something contributing to growth or increase

3. (astronomy) the formation of a celestial object by the effect of gravity pulling together surrounding objects and gases

4. (biology) growth by addition as by the adhesion of parts or particles

5. (geology) an increase in land resulting from alluvial deposits or waterborne sediment

6. (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)

  Familiarity information: ACCRETION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACCRETION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An increase by natural growth or addition

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

accretion; accumulation

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 2

Meaning:

Something contributing to growth or increase

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Context example:

the central city surrounded by recent accretions

Hypernyms ("accretion" is a kind of...):

addition; gain; increase (a quantity that is added)

Derivation:

accretionary (marked or produced by accretion)

Sense 3

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 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:

(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 6

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)

 Context examples 

Perhaps comet 67P/C-G will provide a unique record of the physical processes of accretion.

(Rosetta Comet May Be a Contact Binary, NASA)

In the quasars Zhou observed, the accretion disks were supplied with fast-falling external mass from surrounding space.

(Astronomers Study How Quasars Are Powered by Accretion Disks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

During this period, called late accretion, collisions with moon-sized planetary bodies, known as planetesimals, embedded extensive amounts of metal and rock-forming minerals into the Earth's mantle and crust.

(NASA-funded Simulations Show How Massive Collisions Delivered Metal to Early Earth, NASA)

We now have direct evidence that the cold accretion model is a viable explanation for rapid star formation in distant galaxies, says Matthew Benacquista, a program director in the National Science Foundation

(Spiraling filaments feed young galaxies, National Science Foundation’s Division of Astronomical Sciences.)

Models predict that an accretion disk forms when ample amounts of gas are trapped by a black hole’s strong gravitational pull.

(Hubble Uncovers Black Hole Disk that Shouldn't Exist, NASA)

Even though some light falls into a supermassive black hole never to be seen again, other high-energy light emanates from both the corona and the surrounding accretion disk of superheated material.

(NuSTAR sees rare blurring of black hole light, NASA)

The visualization simulates the appearance of a black hole where infalling matter has collected into a thin, hot structure called an accretion disk.

(NASA Visualization Shows a Black Hole’s Warped World, NASA)

Their results suggest a depletion of oxygen relative to other elements and provide chemical clues into how these exoplanets may have formed without substantial accretion of ice.

(Water common – yet scarce – in exoplanets, University of Cambridge)

The team determined that galactic winds alone could not replenish the newly revealed gaseous reservoirs and suggests that the mass is provided by galactic mergers or accretion from hidden streams of gas, as predicted by current theory.

(ALMA Finds Huge Hidden Reservoirs of Turbulent Gas in Distant Galaxies, ESO)

They studied these systems at different points during periods of outburst — which is when the accretion disk — a flat structure of material orbiting the black hole — brightens because of material falling in.

(NuSTAR Probes Black Hole Jet Mystery, NASA)