Heritable

//ˈhɛɹɪtəbəl// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    That can legally be inherited.

    "An heritable crown, or an heritable throne, or by what other fanciful name such things may be called, have no other significant explanation than that mankind are heritable property."

  2. 2
    Genetically transmissible from parent to offspring; hereditary.

    "But if we consider that all heritable variations must have their roots in the germ-plasm, and further, that when personal selection does not intervene, ..."

Adjective
  1. 1
    capable of being inherited wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
inheritablebequeathalbequestbirthrightentailheirloom

Example

More examples

"Scientists long have understood the environmental risk factors that contribute to stroke, such as smoking and high-fat diets, but they have struggled to find the genes that underlie the heritable component of the disease — until now."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English heritable, from Anglo-Norman heritable; equivalent to herit + -able.

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