pikenemise

Pikenemine is the process or result of increasing length in a substance, structure, or phenomenon. In Estonian usage, the term often appears in its general, cross‑disciplinary sense as elongation, with the genitive form pikenemise used in sentences referring to the elongation itself.

In human biology, pikenemine refers to longitudinal growth, especially during childhood and adolescence. Growth in height occurs mainly through elongation of bones at the growth plates, driven by hormones such as growth hormone, thyroid hormone, and sex steroids, and modulated by nutrition and overall health. The rate of elongation changes with developmental stage and typically ceases after skeletal maturity.

In plants, pikenemine describes the lengthwise growth of stems, roots, and other organs. Cell elongation, aided by turgor pressure and cell-wall loosening, is a major mechanism. Plant hormones such as auxins and gibberellins regulate elongation, while environmental factors like light, gravity, and temperature influence the pattern and extent of growth.

In materials science and engineering, elongation (pikenemine) is a key parameter in tensile testing. It measures the increase in length that a material can sustain before fracture, usually expressed as a percentage of the original gauge length. Higher elongation indicates greater ductility and ability to deform plastically under load.

In linguistics and acoustics, pikenemine can refer to the lengthening of sounds, such as vowels or consonants, which affects phonetic and prosodic properties of speech. Across contexts, pikenemine denotes a change toward greater length, whether of a physical object, a biological structure, or a linguistic unit.