I. ə̇nˈherəd.ən(t)s, -rətən-, -rət ə n- noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English enheritaunce, from Anglo-French enheritance, from Middle French enheriter + -ance
1.
a. : the act of inheriting property: as
(1) : the acquisition of real or personal property as heir to another : the perpetual or continuing right which a person and his heirs have to an estate or property
(2) common, feudal, & Scots law : the acquisition of an ancestor's real estate upon his death by the heir under the Statute of Descent as distinguished from the succession to his personal property by the next of kin under the Statute of Distribution
(3) Roman & Civil law : the succession upon the death of an owner either by testament or by operation of law by the heir to all the estate, rights, and liabilities of the decedent, the liabilities being restricted to the value of the estate when the heir was given the benefit of inventory
b. : the reception or acquisition of genetic characters or qualities by transmission from parent to offspring
c. : the acquisition of a material or immaterial possession, condition, or trait by transmission from the past or from past generations
resented his children's inheritance of slavery from their mothers — Anne K. Gregorie
hard-won freedoms that are ours by just inheritance
2. : something that is or may be inherited: as
a.
(1) : something that is derived by an heir from an ancestor or other person or that may be transmitted to an heir by a person
(2) common, feudal, & Scots law : an estate of inheritance (as a fee simple or a fee tail)
b. : the sum total of genetic characters or qualities transmitted from parent to offspring
on the maternal side his inheritance was a happy one
c. : something material or immaterial that is derived or acquired from the past or from past generations
the random brutality that is the inheritance of centuries of blackness — Irving Howe
especially : a permanent or valuable possession that is a common heritage or that is received from God or nature
our great inheritance of water and land — A.E.Stevenson †1965
their most precious inheritance , that thin layer of topsoil — K.D.White
books are the major channel by which the intellectual inheritance is handed down — New Republic
3. obsolete : right of possession : possession , ownership
II. noun
: a feature of object-oriented programming that allows a class of objects to derive some of its characteristics (as data members or functions) from an existing class through the reuse of code