Meaning & use
acrete
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Meaning
verbtransitive or intransitivetechnical
To grow bigger by gradually collecting extra material on the outside or by sticking things together.
Grammar: Can take an object or stand alone: dust acretes, or gravity acretes dust.
Patterns
- acrete onto something
- acrete something
Dust and gas slowly acrete to form a planet.
Silt can acrete along the riverbank over decades.
Small particles acrete onto the growing crystal.
Word forms
| third person singular | acretes |
|---|---|
| past tense | acreted |
| past participle | acreted |
| -ing form | acreting |
Common combinations
- acrete onto
- Gas can acrete onto a young star.
- acrete over time
- Sediment will acrete over time.
- slowly acrete
- Material slowly acretes to form larger bodies.
- acrete into
- Dust grains acrete into pebbles.
Synonyms and how they differ
- accumulate
- Accumulate is everyday and means to pile up, while acrete is technical and means to grow by sticking on layers.
- accrete
- Accrete is the standard spelling, and acrete is a rarer variant.
- aggregate
- Aggregate means to gather into a mass, but without the idea of slow outside growth.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: acrete or accrue?
acrete vs accrue
Accrue means to build up gradually over time, typically interest or benefits, and is not used for physical growth of a body.
Practice
Over millions of years, tiny particles of dust ______ to form a planet.
Choose one answer.
Acrete means to grow by gradual sticking together. Erode, evaporate and dissolve all involve loss, not growth.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “acrete”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.