accretion /(ăk*krē"shŭn)/

ac·cre·tion

accretion

n.
  1. The act of increasing by natural growth; esp. the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.
  2. The act of increasing, or the matter added, by an accession of parts externally; an extraneous addition; as, an accretion of earth.
    A mineral . . . augments not by growth, but by accretion.
    — Owen.
    To strip off all the subordinate parts of his narrative as a later accretion.
    — Sir G. C. Lewis.
  3. Concretion; coherence of separate particles; as, the accretion of particles so as to form a solid mass.
  4. A growing together of parts naturally separate, as of the fingers or toes.
  5. The adhering of property to something else, by which the owner of one thing becomes possessed of a right to another; generally, gain of land by the washing up of sand or soil from the sea or a river, or by a gradual recession of the water from the usual watermark. (Law)