online medical dictionary | definition of apposition

1. The act of adding; application; accretion. "It grows . . . By the apposition of new matter." (Arbuthnot)

2. The putting of things in juxtaposition, or side by side; also, the condition of being so placed.

3. 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 characterises the first.

<physiology> Growth by apposition, 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 unorganised substance.

Origin: L. Appositio, fr. Apponere: cf. F. Apposition. See Apposite.

(01 Mar 1998)