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hereditary
[ huh-red-i-ter-ee ]
/ həˈrɛd ɪˌtɛr i /
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adjective
passing, or capable of passing, naturally from parent to offspring through the genes: Blue eyes are hereditary in our family.Compare congenital.
of or relating to inheritance or heredity: a hereditary title.
existing by reason of feeling, opinions, or prejudices held by predecessors: a hereditary enemy.
Law.
- descending by inheritance.
- transmitted or transmissible in the line of descent by force of law.
- holding title, rights, etc., by inheritance: a hereditary proprietor.
Mathematics.
- (of a collection of sets) signifying that each subset of a set in the collection is itself a set in the collection.
- of or relating to a mathematical property, as containing a greatest integer, applicable to every subset of a set that has the property.
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Origin of hereditary
synonym study for hereditary
1, 2. See innate.
OTHER WORDS FROM hereditary
WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH hereditary
heritable, hereditary , inheritableWords nearby hereditary
Heredia, hereditable, hereditament, hereditarian, hereditarianism, hereditary, hereditist, heredity, heredo-familial, Hereford, Hereford and Worcester
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use hereditary in a sentence
British Dictionary definitions for hereditary
hereditary
/ (hɪˈrɛdɪtərɪ, -trɪ) /
adjective
of, relating to, or denoting factors that can be transmitted genetically from one generation to another
law
- descending or capable of descending to succeeding generations by inheritance
- transmitted or transmissible according to established rules of descent
derived from one's ancestors; traditionalhereditary feuds
maths logic
- (of a set) containing all those elements which have a given relation to any element of the set
- (of a property) transferred by the given relation, so that if x has the property P and xRy, then y also has the property P
Derived forms of hereditary
hereditarily, adverbhereditariness, nounCollins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for hereditary
hereditary
[ hə-rĕd′ĭ-tĕr′ē ]
Passed or capable of being passed from parent to offspring by means of genes.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Cultural definitions for hereditary
hereditary
A descriptive term for conditions capable of being transmitted from parent to offspring through the genes. The term hereditary is applied to diseases such as hemophilia and characteristics such as the tendency toward baldness that pass from parents to children.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.