inheritance

English

Alternative forms

• enheritance, enheritaunce, inheritaunce (obsolete)
• inhæritance (obsolete, hypercorrect)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English enheritaunce, inheritaunce, borrowed from Anglo-Norman, Old French enheritaunce, from enheriter. Equivalent to inherit +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈhɛɹɪtəns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

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, such as the part of an estate (i.e., a portion).
3. (uncountable, especially linguistics, biology) The act or mechanism of inheriting; the state of having inherited.

   The Indo-European languages share various similarities as a result of their inheritance from a common ancestor.

4. (biology, genetic algorithms) The biological attributes passed hereditarily from ancestors to their offspring.
5. (programming, object-oriented programming) The mechanism whereby parts of a superclass are available to instances of its subclass.

Hyponyms

Hyponyms (computing)

• classical inheritance
• dual inheritance
• dynamic inheritance
• multiple inheritance
• parasitic inheritance
• prototypal inheritance
• static inheritance
• Swiss inheritance

Derived terms

• blending inheritance
• composition over inheritance
• inheritance law
• inheritance powder
• inheritance tax
• particulate inheritance
• preheritance
• widow inheritance

Related terms

• inherit
• inheritable
• inheritor

Translations

passing of title

• Bulgarian: наследяване (bg) n (nasledjavane)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 繼承 / 继承 (zh) (jìchéng)

• Czech: dědičnost f
• Dutch: erfenis (nl), nalatenschap (nl)
• Finnish: periminen (fi)
• German: Erbschaft (de) f
• Hindi: उत्तराधिकार (hi) m (uttarādhikār)
• Irish: oidhreacht f
• Italian: eredità (it)
• Kyrgyz: мурас (muras)
• Middle English: heritage
• Polish: dziedziczenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: herança (pt) f
• Proto-Norse: ᚨᚱᛒᛁᛃᚨ n (arbija)
• Romanian: moștenire (ro) f
• Russian: насле́дование (ru) n (naslédovanije)
• Scottish Gaelic: oighreachd f
• Serbo-Croatian: nasleđivanje (sh) n
• Slovak: dedenie
• Spanish: herencia (es) f, heredad (es) f
• Tagalog: mana, manahan
• Ukrainian: спадкува́ння n (spadkuvánnja), наслі́дування n (naslíduvannja)

that which a person is entitled to inherit

• Arabic: مِيرَاث m (mīrāṯ), إرْثْ m (ʔirṯ), وِرْث m (wirṯ)

  Hijazi Arabic: ورث m (wirs, wirṯ)

• Armenian: ժառանգություն (hy) (žaṙangutʻyun)
• Avar: ирс (irs)
• Azerbaijani: irs, miras (az)
• Bashkir: мираҫ (miraś)
• Berber:

  Tashelhit: ⴰⵢⴷⴰ (ayda)

• Bulgarian: наследство (bg) n (nasledstvo)
• Catalan: herència (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 遺產 / 遗产 (zh) (yíchǎn)

• Dutch: erfenis (nl), erfdeel (nl) n
• Egyptian: (jwꜥt f)
• Esperanto: heredo
• Faroese: ættararvur m
• Finnish: perintö (fi) (which is inherited); perintöosa (minimum required by law)
• French: héritage (fr) m
• Galician: herdanza (gl) f
• German: Erbe (de) n, Erbteil (de) n
• Gothic: 𐌰𐍂𐌱𐌹 n (arbi), 𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍄𐍃 m (hlauts)
• Greek: κληρονομιά (el) f (klironomiá)

  Ancient: κληρονομία f (klēronomía)

• Hindi: उत्तराधिकार (hi) m (uttarādhikār)
• Hungarian: örökség (hu)
• Icelandic: dánargjöf f, arfleifð f
• Irish: oidhreacht f
• Italian: eredità (it) f
• Japanese: 遺産 (ja) (いさん, isan)
• Kabuverdianu: erdansa
• Kyrgyz: мурас (muras)
• Latin: herctum n
• Lithuanian: palikimas m
• Macedonian: наследство n (nasledstvo), оставина f (ostavina)
• Maltese: wirt m
• Maori: whakareretanga
• Middle English: heritage, enheritaunce
• Ngazidja Comorian: mafa
• Old English: ierfe n
• Plautdietsch: Oafgoot n
• Polish: spadek (pl) m
• Portuguese: herança (pt) f
• Romanian: moștenire (ro) f
• Russian: насле́дство (ru) n (naslédstvo)
• Sanskrit: रेक्णस् (sa) n (rekṇas)
• Scottish Gaelic: oighreachd f
• Serbo-Croatian: nasledstvo (sh) n
• Slovak: dedičstvo
• Spanish: herencia (es) f, heredad (es) f
• Swahili: urithi (sw), mirathi (sw)
• Swedish: arv (sv) n
• Tagalog: mana, manahan
• Thai: มรดก (th) (mɔɔ-rá-dòk)
• Turkish: miras (tr), bırakıt (tr), tereke (tr)
• Ukrainian: спадок m (spadok), спа́дщина (uk) f (spádščyna)
• Walloon: eritaedje (wa) m, eritance (wa) f
• Welsh: etifeddiad m, etifeddiadau m pl
• Yiddish: ירושה f (yerushe)

biological attributes passed to offspring

• Bulgarian: наследственост (bg) f (nasledstvenost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 遗传 (zh) (yíchuán)

• Czech: dědičnost f
• Dutch: erfelijkheid (nl)
• Faroese: ættarbregði n
• Finnish: perimä (fi)
• German: Erbschaft (de)
• Irish: oidhreacht f
• Italian: ereditarietà (it) f
• Polish: dziedziczenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: herança (pt) f
• Romanian: moștenire (ro) f, ereditate (ro) f
• Russian: насле́дование (ru) n (naslédovanije)
• Spanish: herencia (es) f
• Swahili: urithi (sw)
• Swedish: arv (sv) n
• Ukrainian: спадко́вість f (spadkóvistʹ)
• Walloon: eritance (wa) f

programming: mechanism for making parts of superclass available to subclass

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 继承 (zh) (jìchéng)

• Czech: dědičnost f
• Dutch: overerving (nl) f
• Finnish: perintä (fi)
• French: héritage (fr)
• Italian: ereditarietà (it) f
• Japanese: 継承 (ja) (keishō)
• Polish: dziedziczenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: herança (pt) f
• Romanian: moștenire (ro) f
• Russian: насле́дование (ru) n (naslédovanije)
• Slovak: dedičnosť (sk)
• Spanish: herencia (es) f
• Ukrainian: наслідування n (nasliduvannja)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} Erbschaft (de)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} eredità (it)
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} nasljeđivanje (sh) n (1, 2, 3)
• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} వారసత్వము (te) (vārasatvamu)

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “inheritance”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Middle English

Noun

inheritance

1. Alternative form of enheritaunce