Word.ws English Dictionary

accrue

UK/əˈkɹuː//əˈkɹu/

accrue verb: to increase, to rise.

Verb

accrue (third-person singular simple present accrues, present participle accruing, simple past and past participle accrued)

  1. (intransitive) To increase, to rise
    • And though pow’r fail’d, her Courage did accrue1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    rise
  2. (intransitive) To reach or come to by way of increase; to arise or spring up because of growth or result, especially as the produce of money lent.
    • Environmental benefits that accrue to the area.
    • Interest accrues to principal.1879, Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, Dictionary of Terms and Phrases used in American or English Jurisprudence: ACCRUE
  3. (intransitive) To be incurred as a result of the passage of time.
    • The monthly financial statements show all the actual but only some of the accrued expenses.
  4. (transitive) To accumulate.
    • He has accrued nine sick days.
    • We, who are dead and gone, shall bear no Part,
      In all the Pleasures, no shall we feel the smart,
      Which to that other Mortal shall accrew,
      Whom of our Matter Time shall mould anew.1709, John Dryden, "Lucretius: A Poem against the Fear of Death" (lines 26-29), published in a pamphlet of the same name with an Ode in Memory of Mrs. Ann Killebrew
    Synonyms:
    add up
  5. (intransitive) To become an enforceable and permanent right.
    Synonyms:
    inure

Noun

accrue (plural accrues)

  1. (obsolete) Something that accrues; advantage accruing

accrue meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam

accrue in Hindi

increase
उपाजित होना upājit honā
to be incurred as a result of the passage of time
उठना uṭhnā, उपाजित होना upājit honā, प्रोद्भूत होना prodbhūt honā
to accumulate
बरामद होना barāmad honā, उपाजित होना upājit honā

accrue in Tamil

தோன்றுசேர், கூடுதலாகு, உண்டாகு, விளை, தொகு, சிறுகச்சிறுகச்சேர்

accrue in Telugu

to accrue, be amassed, gained, acquired, come to hand
కూడు kūḍu
to accrue, occur, turn up
దొరకు doraku

accrue in Malayalam

വർദ്ധിപ്പിക്കുക, കൂട്ടുക, വർദ്ധനമൂലം വന്നത്, ഉദ്ഭവിച്ചത്, വളർച്ച, ലാഭം
More languagesFewer languages
accrue in Kannada
ಸಲ್ಲು, ಕೂಡಿಬರು, ಒದಗು, ದಕ್ಕು
accrue in Sanskrit
स्रवति srávati

Examples of accrue in a sentence

  • The fees begin to accrue after a one-month grace period.
  • Plummy students and the managerial elites might accrue ever-more virtue points through embracing the gender ideology.
  • Even the gods accrue karma, so the human savior will also become the redeemer of the gods.

All 17 example sentences with accrue

Synonyms of accrue

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of accrue

Forms of accrue

Verb
third-person singular presentaccrues
present participleaccruing
past participleaccrued
pastaccrued
Noun
pluralaccrues

Past tense of accrue: accrued

Origin of accrue

First attested in mid 15th century. From Middle English acrewen, borrowed from Old French acreüe, past participle of accreistre (“to increase”), from Latin accrēsco (“increase”), from ad (“in addition”) + crēscō (“to grow”). Compare accrete.

Words formed from accrue

Words that rhyme with accrue

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about accrue

What does accrue mean?
Accrue means to increase, to rise.
What is accrue in Hindi?
Accrue in Hindi is उपाजित होना (upājit honā), उठना (uṭhnā), प्रोद्भूत होना (prodbhūt honā). See Accrue meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is accrue?
Accrue can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce accrue?
Accrue is pronounced /əˈkɹuː/ (UK).
What is the past tense of accrue?
The past tense of accrue is accrued.

Words near accrue in the dictionary

  1. accrual
  2. accrual basis
  3. accrual bond
  4. accrual bonds
  5. accruals
  6. accrue
  7. accrued
  8. accruement
  9. accruements
  10. accruer
  11. accruers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: accrue (page history and authors); accrue (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); కూడు (Telugu) (page history and authors); accrue (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); accrue (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); स्रवति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “accrue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/accrue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.