Verb

Infinitive to inherit

Third person singular inherits

Simple past inherited

Past participle inherited

Present participle inheriting

to inherit (third-person singular simple present inherits, present participle inheriting, simple past and past participle inherited)

1. (transitive) To take possession of as a right (especially in Biblical translations).

   Your descendants will inherit the earth.

2. (transitive) To receive (property or a title etc), by legal succession or bequest after the previous owner's death.

   After Grandad died, I inherited the house.

3. (transitive) (biology) To receive a characteristic from one's ancestors by genetic transmission.

   Let's hope the baby inherits his mother's looks and his father's intelligence.

4. (transitive) To derive from people or conditions previously in force.

   This country has inherited an invidious class culture.

5. (intransitive) to come into an inheritance.

   Lucky old Daniel – his parents were both killed, and he's inherited.

6. (computing, programming, transitive) To derive (existing functionality) from a superclass.

   ModalWindow inherits all the properties and methods of Window.

7. (computing, programming, transitive) To derive a new class from (a superclass).
   • 2006, Daniel Solis, Illustrated C# 2005

     For example, the following two code segments, from different assemblies, show how easy it is to inherit a class from another assembly.

Derived terms

• inheritable
• inheritance
• inherited
• inheritor

To inherit something is to get it from one's ancestors through legal succession (e.g., "inherit the throne"), or through a bequest (e.g., "inherited money from his deceased aunt"), or from genetic transmission (e.g., "inherited color-blindness from his father"). As a related definition, it can mean to take power or possession due to a perceived right or dominating ability to do so (e.g., "Their children's children will inherit the earth"; or, "The nobility of the invading tribe will inherit the ruling-caste positions of Xopanthia").

As a further related definition, it can also mean — in a more general sense — to derive a characteristic from people, groups or objects which were influential at some time in the past, even if such people/groups/objects are not "ancestral" to those who receive the characteristic (as in, for example, "The Western Europeans, during the Middle Ages, inherited the learning of the Arabs by translating many of their important writings").

Other specific meanings and related articles:

• In the sense of biology or genetics, see Heredity;
• In the sense of computer science, see Inheritance (computer science);
• In the sense of law or society, see Inheritance.
• In music, see Inherit (Free Kitten album).

Example: Her dad inherited the throne.