Definition of "accretion" []

• Growth or increase in size by gradual external addition, fusion, or inclusion. (noun)
• Something contributing to such growth or increase: "the accretions of paint that had buried the door's details like snow” ( Christopher Andreae). (noun)
• Biology The growing together or adherence of parts that are normally separate. (noun)
• Geology Slow addition to land by deposition of water-borne sediment. (noun)
• Geology An increase of land along the shores of a body of water, as by alluvial deposit. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The Reserve's marshes and beaches are among the best-studied sites nationally with regard to long-term accretion and erosion (over thousands of years)."
• "Analysts said even with the lack of immediate accretion to earnings per share as a potential negative, Williams can make a compelling case for long-term accretion from the deal."
• "And it seems that people are anticipating a turn in the commodity cycle, and private enterprises that don't have to worry at all about near-term accretion dilution or a mass in power plants on the idea that the forward price curve is about to turn in a positive direction."