inheritance

      English

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      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

      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

      Translations

      that which a person in entitled to inherit
      the passing of title to an estate upon death
      the hereditary passing of biological attributes from ancestors to off-spring
      in object-oriented programming, specific properties of child objects
      The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
      Translations to be checked

      References

      • “inheritance” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).
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      Last modified on 5 June 2013, at 00:43