HEREDITARY


Meaning of HEREDITARY in English

— hereditarily /hi red'i tair"euh lee, -red"i ter'-/ , adv. — hereditariness , n.

/heuh red"i ter'ee/ , adj.

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

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

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

4. Law.

a. descending by inheritance.

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

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

5. Math.

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

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

[ 1375-1425; late ME hereditarius relating to inheritance, equiv. to heredit ( as ) inheritance, HEREDITY + -arius -ARY ]

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

Random House Webster's Unabridged English dictionary.      Полный английский словарь Вебстер - Random House .