inherit
Americanverb (used with object)
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inherits,
present (3rd person singular)
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inherited,
past participle, past
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inheriting
present participle
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to take or receive (property, a right, a title, etc.) by succession or will, as an heir.
to inherit the family business.
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to receive as if by succession from predecessors.
the problems the new government inherited from the previous administration.
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to receive (a genetic character or trait) by the transmission of hereditary factors.
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to succeed (a person) as heir.
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to receive as one's portion; come into possession of.
to inherit his brother's old clothes.
verb (used without object)
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inherits,
present (3rd person singular)
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inherited,
past participle, past
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inheriting
present participle
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to take or receive property or the like by virtue of being heir to it.
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to receive qualities, powers, duties, etc., as by inheritance (followed byfrom ).
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to have succession as heir.
verb
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to receive (property, a right, title, etc) by succession or under a will
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(intr) to succeed as heir
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(tr) to possess (a characteristic) through genetic transmission
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(tr) to receive (a position, attitude, property, etc) from a predecessor
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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inheritornoun
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inheritressnoun
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reinheritverb
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preinheritverb (used with object)
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inheritedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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inheritsimple
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inheritssimple
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have inheritedperfect
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has inheritedperfect
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am inheritingprogressive
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are inheritingprogressive
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is inheritingprogressive
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have been inheritingperfect progressive
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has been inheritingperfect progressive
Past
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inheritedsimple
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had inheritedperfect
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was inheritingprogressive
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were inheritingprogressive
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had been inheritingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of inherit
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English en(h)erit(i)en, from Middle French enheriter, from Late Latin inhērēditāre “to make heir”; see in- 3, hereditary
Explanation
When your grandmother dies, you might inherit her tea set. Regardless of her death, you might inherit her sense of humor or rather large nose. To inherit is to receive from a predecessor. When you are talking about property, inherit is always used to describe something you get after someone else has died. However, there doesn't have to be a death involved to use the word inherit. When you start a new job, you might inherit less than pleasant tasks from the person who had the job before you. You might also quickly inherit their desire to find a new place to work.
Vocabulary lists containing inherit
Word Generation Science - Life Science
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Genetics - Inheritance and Variation of Traits
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Brown Girl Dreaming
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“In most states, your loved one needs to understand the nature of the document, the property they own, who stands to inherit it, and that they are signing a will,” it says.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
Every generation seems to inherit one cultural panic after another.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Immune cells produced by those stem cells inherit the same mutations.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
“Young people everywhere will inherit the environmental legacy we build today,” said Yana Garcia, California secretary for environmental protection.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
It’s custom for the firstborn son to inherit everything from his father, but it doesn’t always work that way.
From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba
The lateral septum inherits much of its primary input from a brain region called the hippocampus.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026
Zidane now inherits a team that reached the semifinals of the World Cup and lit up the tournament with an attack that included Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué, and Michael Olise.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Remember, if she inherits a traditional IRA or other tax-deferred retirement account, distributions can be taxable even if she doesn’t sell anything.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
She inherits the task of running a country hit by powerful organized crime gangs and chronic political instability, as it burned through eight presidents in the past decade.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
The next part of the will would read: "Whichsoever pair made the most money with the ten thousand dollars inherits the whole estate."
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
Winfrey, on Thursday, made it clear he was not a fan of those deals, calling them “something that we inherited ... not something we did on our own.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
In “Buddenbrooks,” Thomas Mann depicted succeeding generations living comfortably on inherited wealth while progressively losing the hard bourgeois virtues that created it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Stokes inherited a team that had won only one in 17 and exited with two wins in 10.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
They inherited $10 million from their grandparents, go skydiving on weekends, are gainfully employed, and do not need the money right now.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
The son of Gus Washington, a planter, local official, and slaveholder, young George inherited ten human beings at age eleven, when his father died, along with 150 acres of property, later called Ferry Farm.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
But the question remains: How did a mistress's second son – and Kim Jong Il's youngest – end up inheriting power?
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
While Sally seems worried about her daughters inheriting her powers, the clip also hints that there might be some happier times ahead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
Children inheriting a traditional IRA must now empty the account within 10 years of the original owner’s death.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
"Non-Mendelian patterns of inheriting epigenetics could be a faster way to acquire diverse or new traits than alterations in the genomic sequence itself, especially in response to environmental pressures," says Andrew Feinberg, M.D.,
From Science Daily ● Jun. 1, 2026
Tillie confided to her lawyer that she wanted to prevent Morrison from inheriting her estate and to rescind his guardianship of her children.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
