Accrue

//əˈkɹu// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Something that accrues; advantage accruing obsolete
Verb
  1. 1
    To increase, to rise intransitive

    "And though pow’r fail’d, her Courage did accrue"

  2. 2
    grow by addition wordnet
  3. 3
    To reach or come to by way of increase; to arise or spring up because of growth or result, especially as the produce of money lent. intransitive

    "Environmental benefits that accrue to the area."

  4. 4
    come into the possession of wordnet
  5. 5
    To be incurred as a result of the passage of time. intransitive

    "The monthly financial statements show all the actual but only some of the accrued expenses."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    To accumulate. transitive

    "He has accrued nine sick days."

  2. 7
    To become an enforceable and permanent right. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
accreteaccrue fromaccrue toaccumulateaccumulateadd up

Example

More examples

"Many advantages accrue to society from the freedom of speech."

Etymology

First attested in mid 15th century. From Middle English acrewen, borrowed from Old French acreüe, past participle of accreistre (“to increase”), from Latin accrēsco (“increase”), from ad (“in addition”) + crēscō (“to grow”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.