- an abnormal outgrowth, usually harmless, on an animal or vegetable body: The patient had moles, swollen red dots, and other excrescences all over the body.
- a normal outgrowth, as hair or horns.
- any disfiguring addition.
- abnormal growth or increase.
- the insertion or addition of a sound, usually a consonant, as a result of articulatory interaction without grammatical or historical justification, like the t-sound in prince or the p-sound in hamster.
- a projection or protuberance, esp an outgrowth from an organ or part of the body
