increment

See also: incrément

English

Etymology

From Middle English encrement, increment, from Latin incrēmentum, from incrēscō (whence increase), from in- crēscō (“grow”). Equivalent to increase ‎ -ment.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪŋkɹɪmn̩t/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

increment (plural increments)

1. The action of increasing or becoming greater.
   • 1695, John Woodward, “(please specify the page)”, in An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth: And Terrestrial Bodies, Especially Minerals: […], London: […] Ric[hard] Wilkin […], →OCLC:

     the seminary that furnisheth matter for the formation and increment of animal and vegetable bodies

   • 1832 June 9, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Sympathy of Old Greek and Latin with English—Roman Mind—War”, in H[enry] N[elson] C[oleridge], editor, Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge. […], volume II, London: John Murray, […], published 1835, →OCLC, page 58:

     A nation, to be great, ought to be compressed in its increment by nations more civilized than itself—as Greece by Persia; and Rome by Etruria, the Italian states, and Carthage.

2. The amount of increase.
   • 1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 263:

     In the third place, the superelevation and alignment of the track, theoretically calculated for speeds of 70 to 75 m.p.h., was adequate for the 80 to 85 m.p.h. or so normally attained as maxima over the G.N. main line; but nothing whatever had been done to prepare it for the enormous increment over these figures that this run was to produce.

   • 2020, Brandon Taylor, Real Life, Daunt Books Originals, page 90:

     The others will return at night, [...] pushing their experiments and nudging their projects toward completion in small, painful increments.

3. (rhetoric) An amplification without strict climax, as in the following passage: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, […] think on these things."
4. (chess) The amount of time added to a player's clock after each move.
5. (grammar) A syllable in excess of the number of the nominative singular or the second-person singular present indicative.

Synonyms

• (action of increasing or becoming greater): enlargement, expansion; See also Thesaurus:augmentation
• (amount of increase): addition, supplement; See also Thesaurus:adjunct

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “amount of increase”): decrement; See also Thesaurus:decrement

Derived terms

• incremence (rare)
• incremental
• increment borer
• in increment
• post-increment
• pre-increment
• unearned increment

 

Related terms

• increase

Translations

The action of increasing or becoming greater

• Bulgarian: нарастване (bg) n (narastvane), увеличение (bg) n (uveličenie)
• Finnish: kasvu (fi)
• Galician: aumento (gl) m, suba f, incremento (gl) m
• German: Erhöhung (de) f, Zunahme (de) f, Zuwachs (de) m
• Hebrew: תוספת (he) f (toséfet)
• Irish: breisíocht f, incrimint f
• Malayalam: വർധന (ml) (vaṟdhana)
• Norwegian: inkrementere
• Russian: прирост (ru) m (prirost)
• Scottish Gaelic: ioncramaid f
• Swedish: ökning (sv), tillväxt (sv)
• Turkish: artım (tr), artış (tr), artma (tr), çoğalma (tr)

The waxing of the moon

• Bulgarian: нарастване (bg) n (narastvane)

The amount of increase

• Bulgarian: ръст (bg) m (rǎst), прираст (bg) m (prirast)
• Dutch: toename (nl) m or f
• Finnish: kasvu (fi)
• German: Inkrement (de) n
• Irish: breisíocht f, incrimint f, breis f
• Japanese: 増分 (zoubun), 増加分 (zoukabun), 増加量 (zoukaryou)
• Swedish: ökning (sv) c, inkrement n
• Tagalog: dugang
• West Frisian: tanimming

Verb

increment (third-person singular simple present increments, present participle incrementing, simple past and past participle incremented)

1. (intransitive, transitive) To increase by steps or by a step, especially by one.
   • 1890, H. E. J. G. Du Bois, “On Magnetic Circuits”, in Philosophical magazine, page 346:

     ... any given value just before observing, the actual pressures must as frequently be incremented as decremented, both in the "on" and the "off" series.

   • 2007 January 23, “Busiest two weeks for recruiters”, in Recruiter Magazine:

     public sector professional services recruitment, has seen a strong seasonal upturn which has incremented year on year since 2002 by an average of 12%.

   • 1984, Brian W. Kernighan with Rob Pike, The UNIX programming environment, page 124:

     The first for loop looks at each word in the input line, incrementing the element of array num subscripted by the word.

Usage notes

• Used in many technical fields, especially in mathematics and computing.

Antonyms

• decrement

Translations

To increase in steps

• Esperanto: alkrementi
• French: incrémenter (fr)
• Indonesian: menaikkan (id)
• Italian: incrementare (it)
• Japanese: 増す (ja) (masu)

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin incrēmentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [iŋ.kɾəˈmen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [iŋ.kɾəˈment]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [iŋ.kɾeˈment]

Noun

increment m (plural increments)

1. increment, increase

   Synonym: augment

Derived terms

• incremental

Further reading

• “increment” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “increment”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “increment” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “increment” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin incrementum.

Noun

increment n (plural incrementuri)

1. increment

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	increment	incrementul		incrementuri	incrementurile
genitive-dative	increment	incrementului		incrementuri	incrementurilor
vocative	incrementule			incrementurilor