increment

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin incrementum, from incrēscō (whence increase), from in- + crēscō (“grow”). Equivalent to increase + -ment.

noun

1. The action of increasing or becoming greater.
   1835, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (d. 1834), Specimens of the Table Talk A nation, to be great, ought to be compressed in its increment by nations more civilized than itself.
2. The amount of increase.
   In the third place, the superelevation and alignment of the track, theoretically calculated for speeds of 70 to 75 m.p.h., was adequate for the 80 to 85 m.p.h. or so normally attained as maxima over the G.N. main line; but nothing whatever had been done to prepare it for the enormous increment over these figures that this run was to produce. 1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Maagazine, page 263
   The others will return at night, … pushing their experiments and nudging their projects toward completion in small, painful increments. 2020, Brandon Taylor, Real Life, Daunt Books Originals, page 90
3. (rhetoric) An amplification without strict climax, as in the following passage: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, […] think on these things."
4. (chess) The amount of time added to a player's clock after each move.
5. (grammar) A syllable in excess of the number of the nominative singular or the second-person singular present indicative.

verb

1. (intransitive, transitive) To increase by steps or by a step, especially by one.
   ... any given value just before observing, the actual pressures must as frequently be incremented as decremented, both in the "on" and the "off" series. 1890, H. E. J. G. Du Bois, “On Magnetic Circuits”, in Philosophical magazine, page 346
   public sector professional services recruitment, has seen a strong seasonal upturn which has incremented year on year since 2002 by an average of 12%. Jan 23, 2007, “Busiest two weeks for recruiters”, in Recruiter Magazine
   The first for loop looks at each word in the input line, incrementing the element of array num subscripted by the word. 1984, Brian W. Kernighan, Rob Pike, The UNIX programming environment, page 124