Contents

English

Pronunciation

Etymology

Recorded since 1473, from to inherit, itself from Old French enheriter "make heir, appoint as heir," from Late Latin inhereditare "to appoint as heir," from Latin in- "in" + hereditare "to inherit," from heres (gen. heredis) "heir".

Noun

Singular inheritance

Plural countable and uncountable; plural inheritances

inheritance (countable and uncountable; plural inheritances)

  1. The passing of title to an estate upon death.
  2. (countable) That which a person is entitled to inherit, by law or testament.
  3. (biology) The hereditary passing of biological attributes from ancestors to their offspring.
  4. (computing) In object-oriented programming, the mechanism whereby parts of a superclass are available to instances of its subclass.

Related terms

References

 

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