increment

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin incrementum, from incrēscō (whence increase), from in- + crēscō (“grow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪŋkɹɪmn̩t/

Noun

increment (plural increments)

1. The action of increasing or becoming greater.
   • Woodward

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

   • Coleridge

     A 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."

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; 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.

Noun

increment m (plural increments)

1. increment