Apposition

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Apposition \Ap`po*si"tion\, n. [L. appositio, fr. apponere: cf.
     F. apposition. See {Apposite}.]
     1. The act of adding; application; accretion.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              It grows . . . by the apposition of new matter.


                                                    --Arbuthnot.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The putting of things in juxtaposition, or side by side;
        also, the condition of being so placed.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Gram.) The state of two nouns or pronouns, put in the
        same case, without a connecting word between them; as, I
        admire Cicero, the orator. Here, the second noun explains
        or characterizes the first.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Growth by apposition} (Physiol.), a mode of growth
        characteristic of non vascular tissues, in which nutritive
        matter from the blood is transformed on the surface of an
        organ into solid unorganized substance.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  apposition
       n 1: a grammatical relation between a word and a noun phrase that
            follows; "`Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer' is an example
            of apposition"
       2: (biology) growth in the thickness of a cell wall by the
          deposit of successive layers of material
       3: the act of positioning close together (or side by side); "it
          is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors"
          [syn: {juxtaposition}, {collocation}]