Hereditary vs. Heredity

Passed on as an inheritance, by last will or intestate.

Of a title, honor or right: legally granted to somebody's descendant after that person's death.

Example: ‘Duke is a hereditary title which was created in Norman times.’;

Of a person: holding a legally hereditary title or rank.

Example: ‘hereditary rulers’;

Of a disease or trait: passed from a parent to offspring in the genes

Example: ‘Haemophilia is hereditary in his family.’;

(math) Of a ring: such that all submodules of projective modules over the ring are also projective.

A hereditary ruler; a hereditary peer in the House of Lords.

Descended, or capable of descending, from an ancestor to an heir at law; received or passing by inheritance, or that must pass by inheritance; as, an hereditary estate or crown.

Transmitted, or capable of being transmitted, as a constitutional quality or condition from a parent to a child; as, hereditary pride, bravery, disease.

tending to occur among members of a family usually by heredity;

Example: ‘an inherited disease’; ‘familial traits’; ‘genetically transmitted features’;

inherited or inheritable by established rules (usually legal rules) of descent;

Example: ‘ancestral home’; ‘ancestral lore’; ‘hereditary monarchy’; ‘patrimonial estate’; ‘transmissible tradition’;

(of a title, office, or right) conferred by or based on inheritance

Example: ‘the Queen's hereditary right to the throne’;

(of a person) holding a position by inheritance

Example: ‘a hereditary peer’;

(of a characteristic or disease) determined by genetic factors and therefore able to be passed on from parents to their offspring or descendants

Example: ‘cystic fibrosis is our most common fatal hereditary disease’; ‘either hereditary or environmental factors’;

relating to inheritance

Example: ‘the main objection to the hereditary principle is that such peers are not elected’;

(of a set) defined such that every element which has a given relation to a member of the set is also a member of the set.

Hereditary transmission of the physical and genetic qualities of parents to their offspring; the biological law by which living beings tend to repeat their characteristics in their descendants.

Hereditary transmission of the physical and psychical qualities of parents to their offspring; the biological law by which living beings tend to repeat their characteristics in their descendants. See Pangenesis.

the biological process whereby genetic factors are transmitted from one generation to the next

the total of inherited attributes

Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic information of their parents. Through heredity, variations between individuals can accumulate and cause species to evolve by natural selection.