excrescence

[ ik-skres-uhns ]
See synonyms for excrescence on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an abnormal outgrowth, usually harmless, on an animal or vegetable body: The patient had moles, swollen red dots, and other excrescences all over the body.

  2. a normal outgrowth, as hair or horns.

  1. any disfiguring addition.

  2. abnormal growth or increase.

  3. Phonetics. the insertion or addition of a sound, usually a consonant, as a result of articulatory interaction without grammatical or historical justification, like the t-sound in prince or the p-sound in hamster.

Origin of excrescence

1
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English; from Latin excrēscentia; see excrescent, -ence

Other words from excrescence

  • su·per·ex·cres·cence, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use excrescence in a sentence

  • And there have been the inevitable credulous excrescences of this bunk in some of the media.

    I Was Right | Conrad Black | April 3, 2009 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • It may be said that these were excrescences or city fashions; that one must not generalize.

    The New Society | Walther Rathenau
  • Forward from that stack her body stretched five 180 hundred feet to her bow without excrescences and without apertures.

    The Women of Tomorrow | William Hard
  • When the tree-bug has deposited its eggs in the boughs of the fir-tree, excrescences arise, shaped like pearls.

  • What surprises me most of all is the number of useless excrescences with which the author has encumbered his piece.

    The English Stage | Augustin Filon
  • Then in the same second they both went out, at a point where the overhead excrescences made it difficult to stand upright.

    Witching Hill | E. W. Hornung

British Dictionary definitions for excrescence

excrescence

/ (ɪkˈskrɛsəns) /


noun
  1. a projection or protuberance, esp an outgrowth from an organ or part of the body

Derived forms of excrescence

  • excrescential (ˌɛkskrɪˈsɛnʃəl), adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012