English Explanatory Dictionary

degenerate

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.
  2. Having lost good or desirable qualities; hence also having bad character or habits, base, immoral, corrupt.
  3. Having lost functionality in general.
  4. Having multiple domain elements correspond to one element of the range.
  5. Qualitatively different, usually simpler, than typical objects of its class.
  6. Having multiple different (linearly independent) eigenvectors.
  7. Having the same quantum energy level.
noun
  1. One who is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature; an immoral or corrupt person.
verb
  1. To lose good or desirable qualities.
  2. To cause to lose good or desirable qualities.

Pronunciation

/dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-degenerate.wav En-us-degenerate-na-noun.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Simplificationalizer-degenerate (noun).wav /dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹeɪt/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-degenerate2.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Simplificationalizer-degenerate (verb).wav

Word forms

degenerate more degenerate most degenerate degenerates degenerating degenerated

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin dēgenerātus. See -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.

Related words

regenerate ungenerate

Derived words

degenerate conic degenerately degenerate matrix degenerate matter degenerateness degenerative hemidegenerate neutron-degenerate matter nondegenerate non-degenerate undegenerate degeneration neurodegenerated neurodegenerating nondegenerated undegenerated undegenerating
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