Increment

Origin

From Latin incrementum.

Full definition of increment

Noun

1. The action of increasing or becoming greater.
• Woodwardthe seminary that furnisheth matter for the formation and increment of animal and vegetable bodies
• ColeridgeA nation, to be great, ought to be compressed in its increment by nations more civilized than itself.
2. (heraldry) The waxing of the moon.
3. The amount of increase.
4. (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."

Derived terms

• incremence rare
• incremental

Verb

1. (intransitive, transitive) To increase by steps or by a step, especially by one.
• 1890, H. E. J. G. Du Bois, On Magnetic Circuits, ... 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, Jan 23, Busiest two weeks for recruiters, 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, The UNIX programming environment, 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