ossification

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun the developmental process of bone formation
noun the calcification of soft tissue into a bonelike material
noun the process of becoming rigidly fixed in a conventional pattern of thought or behavior

From Latin os, ossis (“bone”) + -ification. Recorded earlier than ossify.

The ossification had proceeded with very unusual rapidity; no sign of it had been discovered a month before, and the adhesion had only been observed during the three previous days. — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition: Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes, Edgar Allan Poe
When Brid'oison the judge comes stammering on to the stage, is he not actually preparing us, by this very stammering, to understand the phenomenon of intellectual ossification we are about to witness? — Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, Henri Bergson

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