elongations

Elongation is the process of increasing length. It can refer to physical lengthening or to the progression of growth or development in various contexts, including biology, chemistry, and materials science.

In biology, elongation describes growth and enlargement at the cellular or organismal level. Plant cells elongate by loosening and remodeling the cell wall while expanding under turgor pressure, contributing to overall plant growth. In animals, tissues and bones lengthen during development and maturation. In microbiology, bacterial cells can lengthen as part of the cell cycle or in response to environmental conditions. In molecular biology, elongation refers to successive steps in transcription and translation: transcription elongation is the process by which RNA polymerase moves along the DNA to synthesize RNA, while translation elongation is the addition of amino acids to the growing polypeptide chain on the ribosome.

In materials science and physics, elongation indicates how a material stretches under tensile load. Elongation at break measures ductility by the strain a material experiences before fracture, and other elongation metrics are used to characterize mechanical performance and integrity under stress.

In linguistics and phonetics, elongation denotes the lengthening of a sound, such as a vowel or consonant, which can affect phonemic value or duration in speech. The specific meaning of elongation thus varies by discipline, but across fields it generally signifies a length increase or a lengthening phase.