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hereditary

[huh-red-i-ter-ee]

Example Sentences

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adjective

passing, or capable of passing, naturally from parent to offspring through the genes: Blue eyes are hereditary in our family. Compare congenital.

of or pertaining to inheritance or heredity: a hereditary title.

existing by reason of feeling, opinions, or prejudices held by predecessors: a hereditary enemy.

Law.

descending by inheritance.

transmitted or transmissible in the line of descent by force of law.

holding title, rights, etc., by inheritance: a hereditary proprietor.

Mathematics.

(of a collection of sets) signifying that each subset of a set in the collection is itself a set in the collection.

of or pertaining to a mathematical property, as containing a greatest integer, applicable to every subset of a set that has the property.

Hereditary www.healthline.com/ Symptoms, Causes, Treatments of Hereditary

Origin:
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin hērēditārius relating to inheritance, equivalent to hērēdit(ās) inheritance, heredity + -ārius -ary

Related forms

he·red·i·tar·i·ly

[hi-red-i-tair-uh-lee, -red-i-ter-] , adverb

he·red·i·tar·i·ness, noun

non·he·red·i·tar·i·ly, adverb

non·he·red·i·tar·i·ness, noun

non·he·red·i·tar·y, adjective

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qua·si-he·red·i·tar·y, adjective

COLLAPSE

Can be confused: heritable, hereditary, inheritable (see synonym note at the current entry).

Synonyms
1, 2. See innate. 3. ancestral, traditional.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To hereditary

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Hereditary is always a great word to know.

So is court of appeals. Does it mean:

a person to whom property or power is entrusted for the benefit of another

an appellate court intermediate between the trial courts and the court of last resort

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Example Sentences

There is, unquestionably, a hereditary component to allergies.

OF all forms of government, hereditary monarchies are surely the riskiest.

The illness is hereditary and often is a result of intermarriage between cousins.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

hereditary (hɪˈrɛdɪtərɪ, -trɪ)

—*adj*
1.	of, relating to, or denoting factors that can be transmitted genetically from one generation to another
2.	law
	a. descending or capable of descending to succeeding generations by inheritance
	b. transmitted or transmissible according to established rules of descent
3.	derived from one's ancestors; traditional: hereditary feuds
4.	maths, logic
	a. (of a set) containing all those elements which have a given relation to any element of the set
	b. (of a property) transferred by the given relation, so that if x has the property P and xRy, then y also has the property P

he'reditarily

—*adv*

he'reditariness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

hereditary he·red·i·tar·y (hə-rěd'ĭ-těr'ē)
adj.
Transmitted or capable of being transmitted genetically from parent to offspring.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

hereditary

(hə-rěd'ĭ-těr'ē) Pronunciation Key
Passed or capable of being passed from parent to offspring by means of genes.

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

hereditary definition

A descriptive term for conditions capable of being transmitted from parent to offspring through the genes. The term hereditary is applied to diseases such as hemophilia and characteristics such as the tendency toward baldness that pass from parents to children.

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