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Webster 1828 Edition


Adventitious

ADVENTI'TIOUS

,
Adj.
[L. adventitius, from advenio. See Advent.]
Added extrinsically; accidental; not essentially inherent; casual; foreign.
Diseases of continuance get an adventitious strength from custom.

Definition 2024


adventitious

adventitious

English

Adjective

adventitious (comparative more adventitious, superlative most adventitious)

  1. From an external source; not innate or inherent, foreign.
  2. Accidental, additional, appearing casually.
    • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 30:
      The adventitious disappearance of those nearer the the throne than the duke had, moreover, set tongues awagging.
  3. (genetics, medicine) Not congenital; acquired.
  4. (biology) Developing in an unusual place or from an unusual source.
    • 1985, R. M. T. Dahlgren, H. T. Clifford, & P. F. Yeo, The Families of the Monocotyledons, page 101
      The Velloziaceae have evolved a woody stem which is covered with a layer of adventitious roots mingled with the fibres of the old leaf sheaths;

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