Degeneration

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The process or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse. countable, uncountable, usually

    "The modern cry of "more liberty and less creed" is a degeneration from a vertebrate to a jellyfish."

  2. 2
    passing from a more complex to a simpler biological form wordnet
  3. 3
    That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure. uncountable, usually

    "fatty degeneration of the liver"

  4. 4
    the process of declining from a higher to a lower level of effective power or vitality or essential quality wordnet
  5. 5
    Gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type. uncountable, usually
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  1. 6
    the state of being degenerate in mental or moral qualities wordnet
  2. 7
    A thing that has degenerated. countable, usually

    "cockle, aracus, […] and other degenerations"

Etymology

From French dégénération, from Latin dēgenerātiō.

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