noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Hereditary transmission of the physical and genetic qualities of parents to their offspring; the biological law by which living beings tend to repeat their characteristics in their descendants. uncountable, usually

   "laws of heredity"

2. 2
   the total of inherited attributes wordnet
3. 3
   the biological process whereby genetic factors are transmitted from one generation to the next wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

alleleallelomorphaltmann theoryanticodonbiotypebirth

Example

More examples

"We are influenced both by environment and by heredity."

Etymology

From Middle French heredité, from Latin hērēditas (“condition of being an heir”), from hēres (“heir”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.