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:
With a huge transfer under way, you may inherit shares of companies that you dislike.
From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2026
Eventually, the only-child grandchild could inherit 25% while cousins in the largest branch receive just 6.25% each.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
My current estate plan: My will currently provides for Son #1 to inherit 60% of the business, with his share increasing by 2% for each additional year he works in the business.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
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
Alex Williams didn’t inherit the skills to interact with authority figures from his parents and grandparents the way he inherited the color of his eyes.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
The emergence of extraordinary traits may depend not only on which genes an organism inherits, but also on how those genes are physically arranged and connected within the cell.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 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 forgery does not have to look convincing on its own. It inherits the credibility of the map it was born on," van Ess added.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 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
By the mid-20th century, this inherited relationship with the macabre migrated from home altars and rural folk traditions into the pavement of urban youth cultures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
The findings build on more than a decade of research into rare inherited disorders that disrupt the body's ability to control inflammation.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
"The old-map analogy is useful for explaining how historical bias can be inherited, but it has its limits," he told BBC News.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026
A Welsh government spokesperson said it had "inherited a damning legacy of stubbornly high levels of child poverty".
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026
Why couldn’t his best friend have inherited a school-smart brain from his father, the teacher?
From "Tiger Boy" by Mitali Perkins
We want the intimacy of a home without necessarily inheriting all the obligations of maintaining one.
From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026
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
A bereaved man says he has been hit with a "death tax" after inheriting his mother's home.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
It’s one of the few pieces of clothing that I picked for myself instead of inheriting from Celia.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
