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🌱 Gradual growth 📜 Inheritance increase
accretion

accretion

9.3
Increase of a person's share of an inheritance when another heir dies or refuses it
  • noun
  • /əˈkriːʃən/
  • Formal
translation icon : acreción
  • The recent death of a beneficiary led to the accretion of her share to the remaining heirs.

Examples

  • In the case of inheritance disputes, one beneficiary's rejection can cause an accretion to others' shares.

  • The lawyer explained that the accretion of the estate would benefit the surviving family members directly.

  • Go to the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) and check out the "Federal Law of Accretion."

    Blog text (28)

  • Completing the book necessitates writing the content of its components, and this is exactly what the scribe does in the accretions examined above.

    Academic text (2003)

  • It was in Moscow that Berdyaev again embraced Christianity and the vision of the Russian Orthodox Church, tradition, and message with all its historical/intellectual accretions.

    Academic text (1991)

  • This accretion patently demonstrates that the scribe reads El Conde Lucanor "spiritualmente," or ideologically.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Nevertheless, in relation to the latter, an increase in total thiol availability may somehow enable a faster LM accretion in muscles undergoing chronic contraction (exercise program).

    Academic text (2018)

Synonyms

accrual
vsaccretion
  • Specialized
3 7.2

A slow rise in money or benefits over time

is a legal increase in a beneficiary's share due to death or rejection
accession
vsaccretion
  • Formal
9.1

The right of an owner to things produced by or added to property

is an increase in a beneficiary's share after another beneficiary dies or rejects inheritance

Antonyms

reduction
451 3.2

A decrease in size, amount, degree, or price

Surface Forms

accretion singular
accretions plural

Morphology

accretion = accrete (semi-transparent) = accrete + ion

Formally derived from 'accrete' + '-ion', but the legal meaning (increase in an heir's share) is a specialized extension of 'accumulate' that may not be obvious to an average learner.

Etymology

Accretion comes from the Latin crescere 'to grow', the same idea behind the simple word increase. In law it means one person's share 'grows' when another person dies or refuses the inheritance, so the remaining heirs get a larger part.