Intumescence

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The process of swelling up or the condition of being swollen. uncountable
  2. 2
    the increase in volume of certain substances when they are heated (often accompanied by release of water) wordnet
  3. 3
    An instance of such swelling. countable

    "...but there are other causes of change, which, though slow in their operation, and invisible in their progress, are perhaps as much superior to human resistance, as the revolutions of the sky, or intumescence of the tide."

  4. 4
    swelling up with blood or other fluids (as with congestion) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
benign tumorbloatbloatednessbloatingblowing upboil

Example

More examples

"...but there are other causes of change, which, though slow in their operation, and invisible in their progress, are perhaps as much superior to human resistance, as the revolutions of the sky, or intumescence of the tide."

Etymology

See intumescent.

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