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:
Summoning the will to surrender that power he’d trained all his life to inherit, to the Guardians of the Universe ordering him to betray his friend, is a Herculean act.
From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026
Write the rules too early, and those unknown competitors inherit a regulatory structure designed around the firms that arrived before them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Knowing the gene behind AnWj gives blood specialists something they did not previously have: a direct genetic way to search for people who inherit AnWj-negative blood.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
If your cousin were to die without a will, she could inherit his interest in the property.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
How could Indians descend from Europeans if they did not inherit their genetic makeup?
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Zhang inherits a company built around Carvykti, a one-time therapy for multiple myeloma.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
“There is no option for a 60-day rollover when a nonspouse beneficiary inherits IRA assets,” it adds.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 7, 2026
The Angel Stadium lease that Kroenke inherits requires the team name to “include the name Anaheim therein.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
The lateral septum inherits much of its primary input from a brain region called the hippocampus.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 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
The impact is especially significant for people with inherited disorders that increase their susceptibility to intestinal cancer, including familial adenomatous polyposis.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
The experiment failed — none of the quartet advanced beyond Class-A — yet Fontaine maintained the sunny outlook he inherited from his father.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
Pocognoli has inherited one of the overriding problems Clarke wrestled with during his spell - scoring goals.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Others are putting their money on Antiguan-American author Jamaica Kincaid, whose work deals with exile, identity and the traumas inherited from colonialism, or on Chinese writer Can Xue.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Six weeks ago, I inherited my grandfather’s old lawn mower and came up with a wild plan of making $7,500 over the twelve weeks of summer if I worked all day, every day, mowing lawns.
From "Lawn Boy Returns" by Gary Paulsen
The buyers are inheriting an already lucrative business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
As nonspouses inheriting an IRA, the options for you and your siblings are more restricted.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 7, 2026
John Ternus takes over as Apple's chief executive on Tuesday, inheriting a company that towers over the smartphone market but trails its rivals in artificial intelligence.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 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
It barred anyone who was not at least half Osage from inheriting headrights from a member of the tribe.
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.
