degeneration
NounWordNet 3.0
Noun (3)
- the process of declining from a higher to a lower level of effective power or vitality or essential qualitySynonyms: devolution
- the state of being degenerate in mental or moral qualitiesSynonyms: degeneracydecadencedecadency
- passing from a more complex to a simpler biological formSynonyms: retrogression
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: Cf. F. dégénération.
1. The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration.
Our degeneration and apostasy.— Bates. William
2. Physiology That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure; as, fatty degeneration of the liver.
3. Biology A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type.
4. The thing degenerated. rare
Cockle, aracus,... and other degenerations.— Sir Thomas Browne
Amyloid degeneration, Caseous degeneration, etc. See under Amyloid, Caseous, etc.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54