ex·cres·cence

(ĭk-skrĕs′əns)

1. An outgrowth or enlargement, especially an abnormal one, such as a wart.

2. A usually unwanted or unnecessary accretion: "Independent agencies were an excrescence on the Constitution" (Los Angeles Times).

[Middle English, from Latin excrēscentia, from neuter pl. of excrēscēns, excrēscent-, present participle of excrēscere, to grow out : ex-, ex- + crēscere, to grow; see ker- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

excrescence

(ɪkˈskrɛsəns)

(Pathology) a projection or protuberance, esp an outgrowth from an organ or part of the body

excrescential adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ex•cres•cence

(ɪkˈskrɛs əns)

n.

1. an abnormal outgrowth, usu. harmless, on an animal or vegetable body.

2. any disfiguring addition.

3. abnormal growth or increase.

[1375–1425; late Middle English < Medieval Latin]

excrescence

1. a normal outgrowth of the body, as hair, fingernails.
2. an abnormal outgrowth, as a corn, wart, etc. — excrescent, adj.

See also: Body, Human

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	excrescence - something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings; "the gun in his pocket made an obvious bulge"; "the hump of a camel"; "he stood on the rocky prominence"; "the occipital protuberance was well developed"; "the bony excrescence between its horns" extrusion, gibbosity, gibbousness, hump, jut, bulge, protrusion, protuberance, swelling, bump, prominence frontal eminence - either prominence of the frontal bone above each orbit occipital protuberance - prominence on the outer surface of the occipital bone belly - a part that bulges deeply; "the belly of a sail" caput - a headlike protuberance on an organ or structure; "the caput humeri is the head of the humerus which fits into a cavity in the scapula" mogul - a bump on a ski slope nub, nubble - a small lump or protuberance snag - a sharp protuberance wart - any small rounded protuberance (as on certain plants or animals) projection - any solid convex shape that juts out from something
	2.	excrescence - (pathology) an abnormal outgrowth or enlargement of some part of the body appendage, outgrowth, process - a natural prolongation or projection from a part of an organism either animal or plant; "a bony process" vegetation - an abnormal growth or excrescence (especially a warty excrescence on the valves of the heart) pathology - the branch of medical science that studies the causes and nature and effects of diseases growth - (pathology) an abnormal proliferation of tissue (as in a tumor)

excrescence

noun

1. protrusion, lump, projection, prominence, knob, blot, outgrowth, protuberance The annexe is an architectural excrescence.

2. (Medical) swelling, growth, lump, tumour, wart soft excrescences which are attached to the arterial walls

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

excroissance

escrescenza protuberanza

excrescência

excrescence

[ɪksˈkresns] N → excrecencia f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

excrescence

n → Gewächs nt, → Auswuchs m (also fig)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

excrescence

[ɪksˈkrɛsns] n (frm) → escrescenza

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

ex·cres·cence

n. excrecencia, tumor saliente en la superficie de un órgano o parte.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

It is true that several of the States, separately, are encumbered with considerable debts, which are an excrescence of the late war.

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'I am a preposterous excrescence on the social cosmos,' said Clarence, eyeing him doubtfully.

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Toward the middle of the platform the longboat, half buried in the hull of the vessel, formed a slight excrescence. Fore and aft rose two cages of medium height with inclined sides, and partly closed by thick lenticular glasses; one destined for the steersman who directed the Nautilus, the other containing a brilliant lantern to give light on the road.

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`What has he done with his money.' asked a red-faced gentleman with a pendulous excrescence on the end of his nose, that shook like the gills of a turkey-cock.

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For, it inscrutably appeared to stand to reason, in the minds of the whole company, that I was an excrescence on the entertainment.

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A roof, Richard contended, was a part of the edifice that the ancients always endeavored to conceal, it being an excrescence in architecture that was only to be tolerated on account of its usefulness.

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He says it with such a pitiable air, and his grimy tears appear so real, and he lies in the corner up against the hoarding so like a growth of fungus or any unwholesome excrescence produced there in neglect and impurity, that Allan Woodcourt is softened towards him.

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Crisparkle had need of her own share of philanthropy when she beheld this very large and very loud excrescence on the little party.

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While we stood looking, a wart, or an excrescence of some kind, appeared on the jaw of the Sphynx.

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One only he saw,--a sleek gray fellow, flattened against a gray dead limb so that he seemed a part of it, a woody excrescence upon the wood itself.

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Between the various rocky excrescences were groups of trees of various sizes and heights, amongst some of which were what, in the early morning light, looked like ruins.

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"With regard to the mode in which thou shouldst govern thy person and thy house, Sancho, the first charge I have to give thee is to be clean, and to cut thy nails, not letting them grow as some do, whose ignorance makes them fancy that long nails are an ornament to their hands, as if those excrescences they neglect to cut were nails, and not the talons of a lizard-catching kestrel- a filthy and unnatural abuse.

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