degenerate

American  

[dih-jen-uh-reyt, dih-jen-er-it] / dɪˈdʒɛn əˌreɪt, dɪˈdʒɛn ər ɪt /

verb (used without object)

• degenerates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• degenerated,
  past participle,  past
• degenerating
  present participle

1. to fall below a normal or desirable level in physical, mental, or moral qualities; deteriorate.

   The morale of the soldiers degenerated, and they were unable to fight.

   Synonyms:

   retrogress, backslide, decline, worsen

2. to diminish in quality, especially from a former state of coherence, balance, integrity, etc..

   The debate degenerated into an exchange of insults.

3. Pathology. to lose functional activity, as a tissue or organ.

4. Evolution. (of a species or any of its traits or structures) to revert to a simple, less highly organized, or less functionally active type, as a parasitic plant that has lost its taproot or the vestigial wings of a flightless bird.

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verb (used with object)

• degenerates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• degenerated,
  past participle,  past
• degenerating
  present participle

1. to cause degeneration in; bring about a decline, deterioration, or reversion in.

adjective

1. having fallen below a normal or desirable level, especially in physical or moral qualities; deteriorated; degraded.

   a degenerate king.

2. having lost, or become impaired with respect to, the qualities proper to the species or kind.

   a degenerate vine.

3. characterized by or associated with degeneracy.

   degenerate times.

4. Mathematics. pertaining to a limiting case of a mathematical system that is more symmetrical or simpler in form than the general case.

5. Physics.

   1. (of modes of vibration of a system) having the same frequency.

   2. (of quantum states of a system) having equal energy.

noun

• degenerates
  plural

1. a person who has declined, as in morals or character, from a type or standard considered normal.

2. a person or thing that reverts to an earlier stage of culture, development, or evolution.

3. a sexual deviate.

degenerate British  

verb

1. to become degenerate

2. biology (of organisms or their parts) to become less specialized or functionally useless

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adjective

1. having declined or deteriorated to a lower mental, moral, or physical level; debased; degraded; corrupt

2. physics

   1. (of the constituents of a system) having the same energy but different wave functions

   2. (of a semiconductor) containing a similar number of electrons in the conduction band to the number of electrons in the conduction band of metals

   3. (of a resonant device) having two or more modes of equal frequency

3. (of a code) containing symbols that represent more than one letter, figure, etc

4. (of a plant or animal) having undergone degeneration

noun

1. a degenerate person

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• degenerateness
  noun
• nondegenerateness
  noun
• nondegenerate
  adjective
• predegenerate
  adjective
• undegenerate
  adjective
• undegenerated
  adjective
• undegenerating
  adjective
• degenerately
  adverb
• nondegenerately
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• degenerates
  plural

Participles

• degenerating
  present
• degenerated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• degenerate
  simple
• degenerates
  simple
• have degenerated
  perfect
• has degenerated
  perfect
• am degenerating
  progressive
• are degenerating
  progressive
• is degenerating
  progressive
• have been degenerating
  perfect progressive
• has been degenerating
  perfect progressive

Past

• degenerated
  simple
• had degenerated
  perfect
• was degenerating
  progressive
• were degenerating
  progressive
• had been degenerating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will degenerate
  simple
• will have degenerated
  perfect
• will be degenerating
  progressive
• will have been degenerating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of degenerate

First recorded in 1485–95; from Latin dēgenerātus “declined,” past participle of dēgenerāre “to decline from an ancestral standard, deteriorate”; equivalent to de- + generate

Explanation

If something degenerates, it gets worse, like a food fight that degenerates to an all-out spaghetti-throwing war. Degenerate can also describe an immoral person — or the behavior of such a person. Whether used as a verb, noun, or adjective, degenerate carries a sense of making worse or declining to a lower state. People who are degenerate, or who exhibit degenerate behavior, are often set apart from others, in part out of fear that their influence will degenerate the morals of the impressionable people around them.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

degenerate degenerates degenerated degenerating

I’m kind of glad that I’m not so much of a degenerate anymore.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026

“Degen” is a term that alludes to degenerate gamblers and first gained popularity on Reddit to refer to investors who gravitate toward wildly risky strategies.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025

That it no longer seems to be leaves us all morally degenerate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025

It’s been a huge month for all the degenerate gamblers hoping to cash in on the United States’ elections.

From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2024

Boethius himself played a somewhat similar role in degenerate Rome.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

As the valve tissue degenerates, the thin flaps that should meet neatly can thicken, stretch, or lose their normal shape.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026

“When my dad’s wife died a couple of years back, it was those rave degenerates who were there for me,” she says.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2024

What do you see are some of the things that can keep perspectives on this matchup fresh and maybe move beyond the horse race aspect that election coverage always degenerates into?

From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2024

One commentor suggested we were all members of the illuminati, or the Freemasons, who gathered with other well-heeled or well-connected degenerates to prove to ourselves that we were above the common herd.

From Slate ● May 27, 2023

“If our search degenerates to that level I’ll be sure to call on you,” I said without looking in his direction.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

By 2024, my hobby was starting to feel like work, and it was only a matter of time before the sport degenerated enough to make it official.

From Slate ● Jun. 14, 2026

Wingtech representatives responded that the Dutch intervention was "incomprehensible" and meant the row "degenerated needlessly".

From Barron's ● Feb. 11, 2026

In contrast, workers are wingless females with smaller body size and degenerated reproductive tracts, usually without a sperm storage organ.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 22, 2024

Hilary prompted the first-ever tropical storm watches and warnings in California, but officials now say it had degenerated into a post-tropical low when it hit.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2024

The issues had degenerated to who would win.

From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin

It had earlier said he could not be transferred elsewhere due to his degenerating condition.

From BBC ● May 31, 2026

Not to get too philosophical, but everything alive is degenerating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026

“All of this has been degenerating for a long time,” Melgar said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2025

Finally, they showed that after actually damaging olfactory neurons, the ensheathing glia could not remove the degenerating axons in the flies on the high sugar diet because their Draper levels did not increase.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 7, 2023

Your system of private information is degenerating into private persecution, and would at last establish a state of things perfectly intolerable.

From Sir Brook Fossbrooke, Volume II. by Lever, Charles James

Related Words

• descend
• disintegrate
• lapse
• lessen
• regress
• revert
• worsen