degenerative
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of degenerative
First recorded in 1840–50; degenerate + -ive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Degenerative arthritis is no longer exclusive to the elderly population.
From Science Daily • Mar. 4, 2024
Degenerative diseases are “akin to an act of betrayal against the beauty of one’s accumulated life experiences,” Lee writes in her artist’s statement.
From Scientific American • Aug. 12, 2021
Degenerative and incurable, it is democratic in its reach.
From New York Times • Apr. 30, 2016
Degenerative and incurable, Alzheimer's today afflicts about 4 million Americans, but in the next few decades, as lives get longer and baby boomers get older, that number will rise steeply.
From Time Magazine Archive
Degenerative simplicity is never uniformly distributed over all the structures of the organism.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 3 "Apollodorus" to "Aral" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
