excrescence
/ɛkˈskɹɛsəns/noun
excrescence is a noun meaning “Something, usually abnormal, which grows out of something else” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-X-C-R-E-S-C-E-N-C-E, and it appears about once in every 34 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of excrescence is excrescences.
What does excrescence mean?
noun
- 1
Something, usually abnormal, which grows out of something else.
- 2
A disfiguring or unwanted mark or adjunct.
- 3
The epenthesis of a consonant, e.g., warmth as [ˈwɔrmpθ] (adding a [p] between [m] and [θ]), or -t (Etymology 2).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce excrescence?
- /ɛkˈskɹɛsəns/
- /ɪkˈskɹɛsəns/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-excrescence.wav, En-us-excrescence.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of excrescence
- excrescences plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is excrescence?
Excrescence appears about once in every 34 million words in written English, the 178,202nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Excrescence in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense something, usually abnormal, which grows out of something else:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | excès, excroissance |
| Portuguese | excrescência |
| Spanish | excrecencia |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does excrescence come from?
From Middle English, early 15th century, in sense “(action of) growing out (of something else)”. Borrowed from Latin excrescentia (“abnormal growths”), from excrescentem, from excrēscere, from ex- (“out”) (English ex-) + crēscere (“to grow”) (English crescent). Sense of “abnormal growth” from 1570s, from earlier excrescency (1540s in this sense).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).