Ossification
Ossification , noun
[Compare French ossification. See Ossify.]
1.
(Physiology) 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.