degenerate state

American  

noun

1. Physics. Usually degenerate states. a quantum state of a system, having the same energy level as, but a different wave function from, another state of the system.

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Etymology

Origin of degenerate state

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

She was once the noblest of peoples: will you let contemporary history register for the ages her now degenerate state?

From The Secret of Divine Civilization by `Abdu'l-Bahá

He died regretted by the army, detested by the senate, but universally acknowledged as a warlike and fortunate prince, the useful, though severe reformer of a degenerate state.

From History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1 by Milman, Henry Hart

It offered one more assurance, had I needed it, of the degenerate state of the civilization upon which I was turning my back.

From Frenzied Fiction by Leacock, Stephen

In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking.

From Ralph Waldo Emerson by Holmes, Oliver Wendell

In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking.

From Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Turpin, Edna Henry Lee