inherence

American  

[in-heer-uhns, -her-] / ɪnˈhɪər əns, -ˈhɛr- /

noun

1. the state or fact of inhering or being inherent.

2. Philosophy. the relation of an attribute to its subject.

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inherence British  

/ -ˈhɛr-, ɪnˈhɪərəns /

noun

1. the state or condition of being inherent

2. metaphysics the relation of attributes, elements, etc, to the subject of which they are predicated, esp if they are its essential constituents

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Other Word Forms

• noninherence noun

Etymology

Origin of inherence

From the Medieval Latin word inhaerentia, dating back to 1570–80. See inherent, -ence

Example Sentences

The hypothesis of inherence gives an inadequate account of the dependence of an attribute on a substance, and is a kind of half-way house between separation and predication.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 5 "Arculf" to "Armour, Philip" by Various

The contradictions he finds in the common-sense conception of inherence, or of “a thing with several attributes,” will now become obvious.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 3 "Helmont, Jean" to "Hernosand" by Various

Therefore if a habit does not become more or less intense in itself, neither can it in its inherence in its subject: and consequently it will be nowise less intense.

From Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint

When any individual is destroyed, the class-character does not go elsewhere, nor subsist in that individual, nor is itself destroyed, but it is only the inherence of class-character with that individual that ceases to exist.

From A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1 by Dasgupta, Surendranath

A striking illustration of such transmission by mother to son of a paternally-derived abnormal inherence which she herself does not develop, is found in so-called "bleeders"; persons who suffer from the disease, hæmophilia.

From Feminism and Sex-Extinction by Kenealy, Arabella