Hereditary

Quick meaning: Hereditary is an adjective meaning Passed on as an inheritance, by last will or intestate.

Meaning

Passed on as an inheritance, by last will or intestate.

More Meanings

1. Of a title, honor or right: legally granted to somebody's descendant after that person's death.
2. Of a person: holding a legally hereditary title or rank.
3. Of a disease or trait: passed from a parent to offspring in the genes.
4. (mathematics) Of a ring: such that all submodules of projective modules over the ring are also projective.
5. (graph theory) Of a property of graphs: such that if G has the property, so must every induced subgraph of G.
6. A hereditary ruler; a hereditary peer in the House of Lords.

Example Sentences

hereditary rulers

Haemophilia is hereditary in his family.

Duke is a hereditary title which was created in Norman times.

Xanthuria is an hereditary disorder in which there is an absence of the enzyme xanthine oxidase which interferes with the metabolic breakdown of purines, leading to an increased excretion of xanthine in the urine and to formation of stones.

Word Forms

• hereditaries

Synonyms for hereditary

Depending on context, synonyms include ancestral, familial, patrimonial, transmissible, genetic, inherited.

Antonyms for hereditary

Common opposites include nonhereditary.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include patrimonial, inherited, heritable, inheritable, ancestral, familial.

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