hereditary

[huh-red-i-ter-ee] /həˈrɛd ɪˌtɛr i/

adjective

passing, or capable of passing, naturally from parent to offspring through the genes:

Blue eyes are hereditary in our family.

Compare congenital.

of or pertaining to inheritance or heredity:

a hereditary title.

existing by reason of feeling, opinions, or prejudices held by predecessors:

a hereditary enemy.

Law.

descending by inheritance.
transmitted or transmissible in the line of descent by force of law.
holding title, rights, etc., by inheritance:
a hereditary proprietor.

Mathematics.

(of a collection of sets) signifying that each subset of a set in the collection is itself a set in the collection.
of or pertaining to a mathematical property, as containing a greatest integer, applicable to every subset of a set that has the property.

Origin

1375-1425; late Middle English < Latin hērēditārius relating to inheritance, equivalent to hērēdit(ās) inheritance, heredity + -ārius -ary

Related forms

hereditarily

[hi-red-i-tair-uh-lee, -red-i-ter-] /hɪˌrɛd ɪˈtɛər ə li, -ˈrɛd ɪˌtɛr-/ (Show IPA), adverb

hereditariness, noun

nonhereditarily, adverb

nonhereditariness, noun

nonhereditary, adjective

quasi-hereditary, adjective

Can be confused

heritable, hereditary, inheritable (see synonym study at the current entry)

Synonyms

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

Examples from the web for hereditary

There is, unquestionably, a hereditary component to allergies.
The biggest known risk factors are smoking and family history-it can be a hereditary disease.
Prior to these experiments, protein was believed to hold our hereditary destiny.
When the motion comes on next session for an inquiry into hereditary pensions, there will be some curious disclosures.
Some prion diseases are caused by hereditary mutations in the gene encoding this protein.
Each varna in turn contains hundreds of hereditary castes and subcastes with their own pecking orders.
Which makes a molecular biology of cell machinery point, not an evolutionary hereditary one.
Scientists previously suspected that hereditary predisposition plays a role in some colon cancers.
Some have favoured a genetic, hereditary explanation.
Autism, which is influenced by hereditary and possibly environmental factors, cannot be an epidemic.

British Dictionary definitions for hereditary

hereditary

/hɪˈrɛdɪtərɪ; -trɪ/

adjective

of, relating to, or denoting factors that can be transmitted genetically from one generation to another

(law)

descending or capable of descending to succeeding generations by inheritance
transmitted or transmissible according to established rules of descent

derived from one's ancestors; traditional: hereditary feuds

(maths, logic)

(of a set) containing all those elements which have a given relation to any element of the set
(of a property) transferred by the given relation, so that if x has the property P and xRy, then y also has the property P

Derived Forms

hereditarily, adverb
hereditariness, noun

Word Origin and History for hereditary

adj.

early 15c., hereditarie, from Latin hereditarius, from hereditas (see heredity).

hereditary in Medicine

hereditary he·red·i·tar·y (hə-rěd'ĭ-těr'ē)
adj.
Transmitted or capable of being transmitted genetically from parent to offspring.

hereditary in Science

hereditary

(hə-rěd'ĭ-těr'ē)
Passed or capable of being passed from parent to offspring by means of genes.

hereditary in Culture

hereditary definition

A descriptive term for conditions capable of being transmitted from parent to offspring through the genes. The term hereditary is applied to diseases such as hemophilia and characteristics such as the tendency toward baldness that pass from parents to children.