inheritance

/ɪnˈhɛrɪɾɪns/

/ɪnˈhɛrɪtɛns/

Other forms: inheritances

Any money or property you receive after the death of a friend or relative is an inheritance. Your grandmother might have left you a small inheritance, but she left the bulk of her estate to her Chihuahua, Killer.

A title that passes with death is also called an inheritance. If the current monarch of Britain dies, the inheritance passes to the next in line for the throne, first to the oldest son. A trait that is passed from parent to child genetically is also referred to as an inheritance. The inheritance of red hair, for example, might be common in your family.

Definitions of inheritance

1. noun

   hereditary succession to a title or an office or property
   synonyms: heritage

   type of:

   acquisition

   the act of contracting or assuming or acquiring possession of something
2. noun

   any attribute or immaterial possession that is inherited from ancestors
   “my only inheritance was my mother's blessing”

   synonyms: heritage

   types:

   birthright

   personal characteristics that are inherited at birth

   background

   a person's social heritage, previous experience, or training

   birthright

   a right or privilege that you are entitled to at birth

   upbringing

   properties acquired during a person's formative years

   breeding, education, training

   the result of good upbringing (especially knowledge of correct social behavior)

   nurture, raising, rearing

   the properties acquired as a consequence of the way you were treated as a child

   type of:

   attribute

   an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity
3. noun

   that which is inherited; a title or property or estate that passes by law to the heir on the death of the owner
   synonyms: heritage

   types:

   primogeniture

   right of inheritance belongs exclusively to the eldest son

   borough English

   a former English custom by which the youngest son inherited land to the exclusion of his older brothers

   accretion

   (law) an increase in a beneficiary's share in an estate (as when a co-beneficiary dies or fails to meet some condition or rejects the inheritance)

   bequest, legacy

   (law) a gift of personal property by will

   birthright, patrimony

   an inheritance coming by right of birth (especially by primogeniture)

   devise

   (law) a gift of real property by will

   heirloom

   something that has been in a family for generations

   type of:

   transferred possession, transferred property

   a possession whose ownership changes or lapses
4. noun

   (genetics) attributes acquired via biological heredity from the parents
   synonyms: hereditary pattern

   types:

   ancestry, derivation, filiation, lineage

   inherited properties shared with others of your bloodline

   gene linkage, linkage

   (genetics) traits that tend to be inherited together as a consequence of an association between their genes; all of the genes of a given chromosome are linked (where one goes they all go)

   X-linked dominant inheritance

   hereditary pattern in which a dominant gene on the X chromosome causes a characteristic to be manifested in the offspring

   X-linked recessive inheritance

   hereditary pattern in which a recessive gene on the X chromosome results in the manifestation of characteristics in male offspring and a carrier state in female offspring

   descent, extraction, origin

   properties attributable to your ancestry

   bloodline, pedigree

   ancestry of a purebred animal

   type of:

   genetic endowment, heredity

   the total of inherited attributes