hypertrophy

  1. Noun.  (context, countable) An increase in the size of an organ due to swelling of the individual cells.
  2. Noun.  (context, uncountable) 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.
  3. Verb.  (intransitive, of a tissue or organ) : To increase in size.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.