excrescence

[ik-skres-uhns]

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.

3. any disfiguring addition.

4. abnormal growth or increase.

5. 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.

excrescence

/ ɪkˈskrɛsəns, ˌɛkskrɪˈsɛnʃəl /

noun

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

Other Word Forms

• excrescential adjective
• superexcrescence noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of excrescence¹

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

Example Sentences

If the pronoun police of Wisconsin’s Kiel Area School District were just another woke excrescence on American education, they would be merely local embarrassments.

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One British news report from the era featured an interview with a bloke on the street who described it as “an abortion — it’s an excrescence.”

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The ceiling was unbreached, the man said, and added, a little starchily, that the excrescence clearly was what it appeared to be.

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These excrescences can’t be good for the tree, but they sure make it distinctive.

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“Do you take this excrescence to be your husband?”

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