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View synonyms for degenerate

degenerate

[ verb dih-jen-uh-reyt; adjective noun dih-jen-er-it ]

verb (used without object)

, de·gen·er·at·ed, de·gen·er·at·ing.
  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.


verb (used with object)

, de·gen·er·at·ed, de·gen·er·at·ing.
  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

  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

verb

  1. to become degenerate
  2. biology (of organisms or their parts) to become less specialized or functionally useless
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a degenerate person
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Derived Forms

  • deˈgenerateness, noun
  • deˈgenerately, adverb
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Other Words From

  • de·gener·ate·ly adverb
  • de·gener·ate·ness noun
  • nonde·gener·ate adjective noun
  • nonde·gener·ate·ly adverb
  • nonde·gener·ate·ness noun
  • prede·gener·ate adjective
  • unde·gener·ate adjective
  • unde·gener·ated adjective
  • unde·gener·ating adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of degenerate1

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

Origin of degenerate1

C15: from Latin dēgenerāre, from dēgener departing from its kind, ignoble, from de- + genus origin, race
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Example Sentences

You’d put a mask on the little degenerate to keep him from spewing it all too far.

It is hifalutin talk for an industry currently dominated by financial sharks and Bitcoin whales who frequently describe themselves as “degenerates.”

From Fortune

Prove that there is a set of n points in the plane such that the distance between any two points is irrational and each set of three points determines a non-degenerate triangle with rational area.

Losses can also occur after a chance gene duplication, when the superfluous copy degenerates, since selection no longer preserves it.

Over the subsequent two quarters, SERP visibility continued to degenerate with a lingering active manual penalty.

Then, with a grin, “And we all know how degenerate those people are.”

The popular narrative is that Hitler and his Nazi regime thought all modern art was "degenerate."

Being a fan of Liquid Sky carries the cachet of degenerate hipness to this day, 32 years after it was filmed.

Few of us would argue that such thoughts render someone a moral degenerate—or even as grievously ignorant.

Protests that routinely degenerate into rock-throwing are not, in fact, nonviolent.

What the armor-bearer was for the warlike races of old, such is the tchbukdi for their degenerate descendants.

Avoid sarcasm; it will, unconsciously to yourself, degenerate into pertness, and often downright rudeness.

He observes, also, that these grapes degenerate in the south, but do well in the north in dry and stony soil.

We infer from his writings that his age was degenerate and corrupt, but, as we have already said, his reproofs were gentle.

The Curaoa track is hardly passable, but it must be trod to-morrow by the degenerate feet of their successor the Wallaroos.

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degeneracy pressuredegenerate matter