HEREDITARY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Hereditary

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/hərˈɛdətˌɛri/ Listen

adjective

Hereditary adj.

Descended, or capable of descending, from an ancestor to an heir at law; received or passing by inheritance, or that must pass by inheritance; as, an hereditary estate or crown.

Transmitted, or capable of being transmitted, as a constitutional quality or condition from a parent to a child; as, hereditary pride, bravery, disease.

Synonyms: Ancestral; patrimonial; inheritable.

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Etymology of 'Hereditary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Hereditary" Quotes from Famous Books

... knows. In the West, people say rude things about Lalun's profession, and write lectures about it, and distribute the lectures to young persons in order that Morality may be preserved. In the East where the profession is hereditary, descending from mother to daughter, nobody writes lectures or takes any notice; and that is a distinct proof of the inability of the East to manage ...

— Soldiers Three • Rudyard Kipling

... serpent-worship found all over the world. And hence the association of the serpent in so many religions with the evil-one. In itself, the serpent should no more represent moral wrong than the lizard, the crocodile, or the frog; but the hereditary abhorrence with which he is regarded by mankind extends to no other created thing. He is the image of the great destroyer, ...

— Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel • Ignatius Donnelly

... were very early established in Ireland; long before the birth of Christ we find an hereditary order of Chivalry in Ulster, called Curaidhe na Craiobhe ruadh, or the Knights of the Red Branch, from their chief seat in Emania, adjoining to the palace of the Ulster kings, called Teagh na Craiobhe ruadh, or the Academy of the Red Branch; and contiguous ...

— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... It shortens life. It originates hereditary disease. It ruins the character of thousands. It destroys the peace of families and of individuals. It causes husbands and wives to neglect each other, their children, and their homes. It makes wives widows, and children orphans. ...

— Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 • Edward William Cole

... is simply and serviceably descriptive: the king is a king, the queen a queen, the jack a jack. We use "another kind of common sense." At the very foundation of our political system lies the denial of hereditary and artificial rank. Our fathers created this government as a protest against all that, and all that it implies. They virtually declared that kings and noblemen could not breathe here, and no American loyal to the principles of the Revolution which made him one will ever say in his own ...

— The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays - 1909 • Ambrose Bierce

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