— 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.