Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A nontumorous enlargement of an organ or a tissue as a result of an increase in the size rather than the number of constituent cells.
  • intransitive & transitive verb To grow or cause to grow abnormally large.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To become hypertrophous or enlarged from excessive nutrition.
  • noun In pathology, an enlargement of a part of the body from excessive growth or multiplication of its elements; specifically, an enlargement due to growth of the individual elements, as distinguished from hyperplasia, where there is a multiplication of the cellular elements.
  • noun Figuratively, excessive growth or accumulation of any kind.
  • noun In botany, a general term for all cases of excessive growth and increased size in the organs of plants, whether the increase is general or in a single direction.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med. & Biol.) A condition of overgrowth or excessive development of an organ or part; -- the opposite of atrophy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun countable, medicine An increase in the size of an organ due to swelling of the individual cells
  • noun uncountable, bodybuilding Increase in muscle size through increased size of individual muscle cells; a result of weightlifting, and other exercise. It differs from muscle hyperplasia, which is the formation of new muscle cells.
  • verb intransitive, of a tissue or organ : To increase in size

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun abnormal enlargement of a body part or organ
  • verb undergo hypertrophy

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From hyper- + -trophy.

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