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View synonyms for degenerative

degenerative

[ dih-jen-er-uh-tiv, -uh-rey-tiv ]

adjective

  1. tending to degenerate.
  2. characterized by degeneration.


degenerative

/ dɪˈdʒɛnəˌreɪtɪv /

adjective

  1. (of a disease or condition) getting steadily worse


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Other Words From

  • nonde·gener·a·tive adjective
  • unde·gener·a·tive adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of degenerative1

First recorded in 1840–50; degenerate + -ive

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Example Sentences

Those photoreceptor cells are the first to die in the degenerative disease.

CTE is a degenerative disease caused by repetitive hits to the head that is commonly associated with contact sports, including football.

McKee observed what she says are “all the classic signs” of severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the degenerative brain disease associated with the repeated blows to the head common in football and boxing.

Caldwell has several service-related injuries and other disabilities, his attorney said, including injuries to his shoulders, degenerative lumbar disc disease and chronic knee pain.

The star of the feature-length Climbing Blind, Jesse Dufton, leads the trad route—but with the additional challenge of not being able to see it, as he was born with a degenerative eye disease that’s left him basically only able to perceive light.

In this degenerative illness, patients lose the function of the left half of their brain.

I learned that he had a degenerative disease and might not live long enough even to finish his Ph.D. degree.

The cop had read a newspaper story about Lanza, and had a teenage son who was slowly going blind from a degenerative eye disease.

He was elevated by hope for an antidote to what felt like a toxic, degenerative condition.

Any epithelial cell may be so granular from degenerative changes that the nucleus is obscured.

As with the grown woman, so with the child, the degenerative form of hysteria makes those subject to it untrustworthy witnesses.

What influences of a degenerative nature are likely to affect them?

But, as will presently be shown, a change of direction cannot take place at every stage of the degenerative process.

The condition, moreover, has a tendency to set into action degenerative tendencies latent in the liver and kidneys.

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degenerationdegenerative joint disease