Os`si*fi*ca"tion (?), n. [Cf. F. ossification. See Ossify.]

1. Physiol.

The formation of bone; the process, in the growth of an animal, by which inorganic material (mainly lime salts) is deposited in cartilage or membrane, forming bony tissue; ostosis.

⇒ Besides the natural ossification of growing tissue, there is the so-called accidental ossification which sometimes follows certain abnormal conditions, as in the ossification of an artery.

2.

The state of being changed into a bony substance; also, a mass or point of ossified tissue.

© Webster 1913.