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Excrescence
Definitions
- 1 Something, usually abnormal, which grows out of something else.
"I have again and again intimated that I desire the hair to be arranged closely, modestly, plainly. Miss Temple, that girl’s hair must be cut off entirely; I will send a barber to-morrow: and I see others who have far too much of the excrescence—that tall girl, tell her to turn round."
- 2 (pathology) an abnormal outgrowth or enlargement of some part of the body wordnet
- 3 A disfiguring or unwanted mark or adjunct.
"Being bussum buddies, the two friends often communicated with mere exchange of psychic forces, verbal communication having been rendered unnecessary excrescence."
- 4 something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings wordnet
- 5 The epenthesis of a consonant, e.g., warmth as [ˈwɔrmpθ] (adding a [p] between [m] and [θ]), or -t (Etymology 2).
Etymology
From Middle English, early 15th century, in sense “(action of) growing out (of something else)”. Borrowed from Latin excrescentia (“abnormal growths”), from excrescentem, from excrēscere, from ex- (“out”) (English ex-) + crēscere (“to grow”) (English crescent). Sense of “abnormal growth” from 1570s, from earlier excrescency (1540s in this sense).
See also for "excrescence"
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Unscramble this word: excrescence