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hereditary

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hereditary

  • /həˈɹɛdɪt(ə)ɹi/ UK
  • /həˈɹɛdɪˌtɛɹi/ US

Where it comes from

Inherited from Middle English hereditarie, from Latin hērēditārius, from hērēditās (“inheritance”), from hērēs (“heir”).

adjective more hereditary · most hereditary

  1. Passed on as an inheritance, by last will or intestate.
  2. Of a title, honor or right: legally granted to somebody's descendant after that person's death. Duke is a hereditary title which was created in Norman times.

    Similar: lineal

  3. Of a person: holding a legally hereditary title or rank. hereditary rulers
  4. Of a disease or trait: passed from a parent to offspring in the genes. Haemophilia is hereditary in his family.
  5. Of a ring: such that all submodules of projective modules over the ring are also projective.
  6. Of a property of graphs: such that if G has the property, so must every induced subgraph of G.

Similar: inhereditary · Opposite: nonhereditary

noun hereditaries

  1. A hereditary ruler; a hereditary peer in the House of Lords.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: patrimonial, inherited, heritable, inheritable, ancestral, familial, transmitted, genetic, transmissible, prince, traditional, lineal, intergenerational, crown, congenital, inborn

adjective

Similar: inhereditary · Opposite: nonhereditary

Translations

Every language

adj which is passed on as inheritance

Españolheredado, hereditario
中文遺傳的 /遗传的 yíchuán de, 遺留的 /遗留的 yíliú de
हिन्दीपैतृक paitŕk, ख़ानदानी xāndānī, आनुवंशिक ānuvañśik, वंशागत vañśāgat, पुश्तैनी puśtainī, मौरूसी maurūsī
Portuguêshereditário
Deutscherblich
Italianoereditario
Ελληνικάκληρονομικός klironomikós
Românăereditar
Русскийнасле́дственный naslédstvennyj

adj of a title, honor or right: granted to somebody's descendant after that person's death

Españolheredado, hereditario
中文世襲的 /世袭的 shìxí de
हिन्दीख़ानदानी xāndānī, आनुवंशिक ānuvañśik, वंशागत vañśāgat, पैतृक paitŕk, पुश्तैनी puśtainī, मौरूसी maurūsī
Portuguêshereditário
DeutschErb-
Italianoereditario
Ελληνικάκληρονομικός klironomikós, προγονικός progonikós
Românăereditar
Русскийнасле́дственный naslédstvennyj

adj of a person: holding a hereditary title or rank

Españolheredado, hereditario
Portuguêshereditário
DeutschErb-
Italianoereditario
Ελληνικάκληρονομικός klironomikós
Românăereditar
Русскийнасле́дственный naslédstvennyj

adj of a disease or trait: passed in the genes

Españolhereditario
中文遺傳的 /遗传的 yíchuán de
हिन्दीख़ानदानी xāndānī, आनुवंशिक ānuvañśik, पुश्तैनी puśtainī, मौरूसी maurūsī, वंशानुक्रमिक vañśānukramik
Portuguêshereditário
Françaishéréditaire
Deutscherblich, Erb-
Italianoereditario
Ελληνικάκληρονομικός klironomikós
Românăereditar
Русскийнасле́дственный naslédstvennyj

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MLA

"hereditary." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/hereditary. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

hereditary. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/hereditary

Chicago

"hereditary." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/hereditary.

BibTeX
@misc{hereditary_2026,
  title = {hereditary},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/hereditary},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}