increment

UK/ˈɪŋkɹɪmn̩t/US/ˈɪŋkɹɪmn̩t/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,754 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: increments

An increment is one small step up in a series. A pay increment, in small increments, an annual increment.

In pay it means the automatic yearly rise within a grade, which is different from a promotion or a raise. In computing, to increment is to add one. The Latin means a growing, from the same verb as increase.

Definitions of increment

1nounincrementOne small step up in a series.C1
“The volume goes up in small increments each time you press the button.”

increment is a step.

Where it comes from

Latin incrementum means a growth, from increscere, to grow. Increase and crescent come from the same growing.

Latin
incrēmentum
Middle English
encrement
English, today
increment

Built from

crēscō · Latin — grow

From Middle English encrement, increment, from Latin incrēmentum, from incrēscō (whence increase), from in- + crēscō (“grow”). Equivalent to increase + ment.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Numbers & Measurement

Practise this word

increment in the wild

Tax increment financing (TIF) is a public financing method that is used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other community-improvement projects in the United States.
Tax increment financing
The increment operator increases, and the decrement operator decreases, the value of its operand by 1.
Increment and decrement operators
In languages where increment/decrement is not an expression (e.g., Go), only one version is needed (in the case of Go, post operators only).
Increment and decrement operators

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the crēscō family

increase cereal

increment — used about once every 81,824 pages · #14,754 · point at the bar for the others

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