hereditary
[ huh-red-i-ter-ee ]
/ həˈrɛd ɪˌtɛr i /
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.
RELATED WORDS
genetic, inborn, ancestral, family, inbred, inherited, maternal, paternal, traditional, patrimonial, bequeathed, genealogical, heritable, inheritable, lineal, transmissible
Nearby words
- heredia, josé maría de,
- hereditable,
- hereditament,
- hereditarian,
- hereditarianism,
- hereditary angioneurotic edema,
- hereditary cerebellar ataxia,
- hereditary cerebral leukodystrophy,
- hereditary chorea,
- hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia
Origin of hereditary
SYNONYMS FOR hereditary
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web 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
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
hereditary
early 15c., hereditarie, from Latin hereditarius, from hereditas (see heredity).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
hereditary
[ hə-rĕd′ĭ-tĕr′ē ]
adj.
Transmitted or capable of being transmitted genetically from parent to offspring.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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.
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.