On groups whose geodesic growth is polynomial

This note records some observations concerning geodesic growth functions. If a nilpotent group is not virtually cyclic then it has exponential geodesic growth with respect to all finite generating sets. On the other hand, if a finitely generated group G has an element whose normal closure is abelian and of finite index, then G has a finite generating set with respect to which the geodesic growth is polynomial (this includes all virtually cyclic groups)Peer Reviewe