Definition of "calcification" []

• Impregnation with calcium or calcium salts, as with calcium carbonate. (noun)
• Hardening, as of tissue, by such impregnation. (noun)
• A calcified substance or part. (noun)
• An inflexible, unchanging state: calcification of negotiations. (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.

• "When talking about heart disease, you often hear the word calcification."
• "Usually they are painless and only cause lameness under certain conditions, as when they begin to develop themselves under the stimulus of inflammatory action, or when large enough to interfere with the functions of the tendons, or again when they have undergone certain pathological changes, such as calcification, which is among their tendencies."
• "Abnormal deposition of calcium in the body occurs in three places: the intima, the innermost layer or lining of the arteries that causes atherosclerotic plaque; the heart valves; and the medial calcification, which is the muscle layer of the arteries."