heredity

1. 1.

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

   Broaderorganic process
2. 2.

   the total of inherited attributes

   Synonymsgenetic endowment

   Broaderproperty

   Narrowerinheritance

Other forms of heredity

plural

heredities·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about heredity

What does heredity mean?

heredity means "the biological process whereby genetic factors are transmitted from one generation to the next". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in heredity?

heredity has 4 syllables: he-red-i-ty. The stress falls on "red". In IPA it is /hɚˈɛdəti/.

What is another word for heredity?

Close synonyms include genetic endowment. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is heredity a common word?

heredity is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.