growth

American  

[grohth] / groʊθ /

noun

• growths
  plural

1. 

   the act or process, or a manner of growing; development; gradual increase.

   Synonyms:

   expansion, augmentation

   Antonyms:

   decrease, decline

2. size or stage of development.

   It hasn't yet reached its full growth.

3. completed development.

4. development from a simpler to a more complex stage.

   the growth of ritual forms.

5. development from another but related form or stage.

   the growth of the nation state.

6. something that has grown or developed by or as if by a natural process.

   a growth of stubborn weeds.

   Synonyms:

   outgrowth, result

7. Pathology. an abnormal increase in a mass of tissue, as a tumor.

   Synonyms:

   excrescence

8. origin; source; production.

   onions of English growth.

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adjective

1. of or denoting a business, industry, or equity security that grows or is expected to grow in value over a long period of time.

   a growth industry; a growth stock.

growth British  

/ ɡrəʊθ /

noun

1. the process or act of growing, esp in organisms following assimilation of food

2. an increase in size, number, significance, etc

3. something grown or growing

   a new growth of hair

4. a stage of development

5. any abnormal tissue, such as a tumour

6. (modifier) of, relating to, causing or characterized by growth

   a growth industry

   growth hormone

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growth Scientific  

/ grōth /

1. An increase in the size of an organism or part of an organism, usually as a result of an increase in the number of cells. Growth of an organism may stop at maturity, as in the case of humans and other mammals, or it may continue throughout life, as in many plants. In humans, certain body parts, like hair and nails, continue to grow throughout life.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pregrowth
  noun
• regrowth
  noun
• supergrowth
  noun
• antigrowth
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• growths
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of growth

First recorded in 1550–60; see grow, -th ¹; probably cognate with Old Norse grōthr

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Explanation

The noun growth is the process of something becoming bigger. If you mentioned the growth of your family, you might mean that babies were born or people got married, increasing your family's size. Growth is an increase in physical size, like the growth of a sapling into a mature tree. There are other kinds of growth, like your sister's personal growth since she started to meditate every day. Growth can also mean something that has grown, like a growth of stubble on your dad's face or a cancerous growth that needs to be removed surgically. The Old English root word is growan, "to grow or flourish."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

growth growths

After decades of rapid expansion, Protestant growth has largely stalled, while the “nones”—those with no religious affiliation—are gaining ground.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

DraftKings, in its earnings release on Thursday, said that its predictions business is driving growth for the company.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026

Outlays on data centres to train and power artificial intelligence models have become one of the main growth engines for the US economy, the world's largest.

From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2026

If successful, those changes could lift Israel’s potential annual economic growth by as much as half a percentage point by the 2030s, it estimates.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

That bend in the growth curve, small though it was, perplexed Monod.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Steroids that reduce inflammation and suppress malignant growths.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026

These thread like growths, known as filaments, would keep extending until they created a short circuit and destroyed the pixel.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 4, 2026

Sloan is currently waiting for a mastectomy, which requires the removal or one or both of the breasts as a method of treating or preventing future cancer growths.

From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026

At the time, she said she learned she had non-cancerous growths on her vocal cords.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2026

Quickly it was realized that petroleum in volume not only could be used to bind bowels and banish scabby growths but could be refined into lucrative products like paraffin and kerosene.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

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Related Words

• advance
• advancement
• expansion
• gain
• hike
• improvement
• increase
• production
• prosperity
• rise
• success
• surge

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