degenerate
Americanverb (used without object)
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to fall below a normal or desirable level in physical, mental, or moral qualities; deteriorate.
The morale of the soldiers degenerated, and they were unable to fight.
- Synonyms:
- retrogress, backslide, decline, worsen
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to diminish in quality, especially from a former state of coherence, balance, integrity, etc..
The debate degenerated into an exchange of insults.
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Pathology. to lose functional activity, as a tissue or organ.
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Evolution. (of a species or any of its traits or structures) to revert to a simple, less highly organized, or less functionally active type, as a parasitic plant that has lost its taproot or the vestigial wings of a flightless bird.
verb (used with object)
adjective
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having fallen below a normal or desirable level, especially in physical or moral qualities; deteriorated; degraded.
a degenerate king.
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having lost, or become impaired with respect to, the qualities proper to the species or kind.
a degenerate vine.
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characterized by or associated with degeneracy.
degenerate times.
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Mathematics. pertaining to a limiting case of a mathematical system that is more symmetrical or simpler in form than the general case.
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Physics.
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(of modes of vibration of a system) having the same frequency.
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(of quantum states of a system) having equal energy.
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noun
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a person who has declined, as in morals or character, from a type or standard considered normal.
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a person or thing that reverts to an earlier stage of culture, development, or evolution.
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a sexual deviate.
verb
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to become degenerate
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biology (of organisms or their parts) to become less specialized or functionally useless
adjective
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having declined or deteriorated to a lower mental, moral, or physical level; debased; degraded; corrupt
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physics
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(of the constituents of a system) having the same energy but different wave functions
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(of a semiconductor) containing a similar number of electrons in the conduction band to the number of electrons in the conduction band of metals
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(of a resonant device) having two or more modes of equal frequency
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(of a code) containing symbols that represent more than one letter, figure, etc
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(of a plant or animal) having undergone degeneration
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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degeneratenessnoun
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nondegeneratenessnoun
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nondegenerateadjective
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predegenerateadjective
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undegenerateadjective
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undegeneratedadjective
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undegeneratingadjective
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degeneratelyadverb
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nondegeneratelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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degeneratesimple
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degeneratessimple
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have degeneratedperfect
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has degeneratedperfect
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am degeneratingprogressive
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are degeneratingprogressive
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is degeneratingprogressive
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have been degeneratingperfect progressive
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has been degeneratingperfect progressive
Past
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degeneratedsimple
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had degeneratedperfect
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was degeneratingprogressive
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were degeneratingprogressive
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had been degeneratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of degenerate
First recorded in 1485–95; from Latin dēgenerātus “declined,” past participle of dēgenerāre “to decline from an ancestral standard, deteriorate”; equivalent to de- + generate
Explanation
If something degenerates, it gets worse, like a food fight that degenerates to an all-out spaghetti-throwing war. Degenerate can also describe an immoral person — or the behavior of such a person. Whether used as a verb, noun, or adjective, degenerate carries a sense of making worse or declining to a lower state. People who are degenerate, or who exhibit degenerate behavior, are often set apart from others, in part out of fear that their influence will degenerate the morals of the impressionable people around them.
Vocabulary lists containing degenerate
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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Flowers for Algernon
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Persepolis
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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:
“Degen” is a term that alludes to degenerate gamblers and first gained popularity on Reddit to refer to investors who gravitate toward wildly risky strategies.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025
His screen persona has often been the sleaziest of weasels, the connoisseur’s moral degenerate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
“It was like a full-on summer camp for degenerate punk rockers, if you will,” Dragge says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2025
It’s been a huge month for all the degenerate gamblers hoping to cash in on the United States’ elections.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2024
Boethius himself played a somewhat similar role in degenerate Rome.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
As the valve tissue degenerates, the thin flaps that should meet neatly can thicken, stretch, or lose their normal shape.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
By targeting the “worst” degenerates first, they fractured the opposition, and inadvertently created that “First they came for…” poem that we all now memorize in middle school.
From Slate ● Feb. 16, 2025
“When my dad’s wife died a couple of years back, it was those rave degenerates who were there for me,” she says.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2024
What do you see are some of the things that can keep perspectives on this matchup fresh and maybe move beyond the horse race aspect that election coverage always degenerates into?
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2024
“If our search degenerates to that level I’ll be sure to call on you,” I said without looking in his direction.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
By 2024, my hobby was starting to feel like work, and it was only a matter of time before the sport degenerated enough to make it official.
From Slate ● Jun. 14, 2026
Wingtech representatives responded that the Dutch intervention was "incomprehensible" and meant the row "degenerated needlessly".
From Barron's ● Feb. 11, 2026
Hilary prompted the first-ever tropical storm watches and warnings in California, but officials now say it had degenerated into a post-tropical low when it hit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2024
"Based on these findings, we hypothesize that targeting dysfunctional synapses before the neurons are degenerated may represent a better therapeutic strategy."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2023
“If there was any rivalry between the girls, the game often degenerated into a first-class brawl,” said Melita.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
"Perhaps they can add new brain cells to a network that is degenerating," Salta says.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 3, 2026
It had earlier said he could not be transferred elsewhere due to his degenerating condition.
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
Not to get too philosophical, but everything alive is degenerating.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026
“All of this has been degenerating for a long time,” Melgar said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2025
If the adaptation of an animal to its environment is secured by "degenerating" or "developing" or by remaining stationary, it will do one of the three.
From A Grammar of Freethought by Cohen, Chapman
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.
