accumulation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of gathering or amassing, as into a heap or pile: "Little things grew by continual accumulation” ( Samuel Johnson).
2. n. The process of growing into a large amount or heap: the steady accumulation of knowledge.
3. n. An amount that has accumulated or been accumulated: an accumulation of debt; an accumulation of rubbish.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of accumulating, or state of being accumulated; an amassing; a collecting together.
2. n. Growth by continuous additions, as the addition of interest to principal. Specifically, in law: The adding of the interest or income of a fund to the principal, pursuant to the provisions of a will or deed preventing its being expended. The law imposes restrictions on the power of a testator or creator of a trust to prohibit thus the present beneficial enjoyment of a fund in order to increase it for a future generation, The concurrence of several titles to the same thing, or of several circumstances to the same proof: more correctly, cumulation.
3. n. That which is accumulated; a heap, mass, or aggregation: as, a great accumulation of sand at the mouth of a river.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of amassing or gathering, as into a pile.
2. n. The process of growing into a heap or a large amount.
3. n. A mass of something piled up or collected.
4. n. law The concurrence of several titles to the same proof.
5. n. accounting The continuous growth of capital by retention of interest or savings.
6. n. finance The action of investors buying an asset from other investors when the price of the asset is low.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of accumulating, the state of being accumulated, or that which is accumulated.
2. n. (Law) The concurrence of several titles to the same proof.
3. n. etc. (Physics) See under Accumulation, Conservation, Correlation, etc.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an increase by natural growth or addition
2. n. (finance) profits that are not paid out as dividends but are added to the capital base of the corporation
3. n. several things grouped together or considered as a whole
4. n. the act of accumulating