degenerate

Add to my favorites

Definitions

• (adjective): Having declined, as in function or nature, from a former or original state: a degenerate form of an ancient folk art.
• (adjective): Having fallen to an inferior or undesirable state, especially in mental or moral qualities.
• (adjective): Physics Relating to two or more quantum states that share the same quantum numbers: degenerate energy levels.
• (adjective): Physics Characterized by great density and consisting of atoms stripped of electrons: degenerate matter.
• (adjective): Medicine Characterized by degeneration, as of tissue, a cell, or an organ.
• (adjective): Biology Having lost one or more highly developed functions, characteristics, or structures through evolution: a degenerate life form.
• (adjective): Genetics Having more than one codon that may code for the same amino acid.
• (noun): A depraved, corrupt, or vicious person.
• (noun): A person lacking or having progressively lost normative biological or psychological characteristics.
• (verb-intransitive): To fall below a normal or desirable state, especially functionally or morally; deteriorate: old water pipes that are degenerating with age; a dispute that degenerated into a brawl.
• (verb-intransitive): To decline in quality: The quality of his writing degenerated as he continued to drink.
• (verb-intransitive): To undergo degeneration.

Wordnet definitions

• (noun): a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior

• (adjective): unrestrained by convention or morality; "Congreve draws a debauched aristocratic society"; "deplorably dissipated and degraded"; "riotous living"; "fast women"

• (verb): grow worse; "Her condition deteriorated"; "Conditions in the slums degenerated"; "The discussion devolved into a shouting match"

Look up "degenerate" to find its meanings and associations with other words and concepts

Example Sentences

• I can think of no more potent objection to such inclusive use of the term degenerate, than the fact that Lombroso includes, under the signs of degeneration, the enormous development of the cerebral speech-area in the case of an accomplished orator.

• The word degenerate has appeared in 43 New York Times articles in the past year, including on June 25 in Sit Up Straight.

• Learn more about the word "degenerate" and see usage examples across a range of subjects on the Vocabulary.com dictionary.

• Someone you call a degenerate and a slut who uses and discards people like Kleenex?

• As long as we persist in reducing any debate about immediacy and complexity to an argument over populism and elitism, though, that debate will continue to degenerate from a discussion of aesthetics to a political struggle between Populists and Elitists, each seeking to impose their view on How Writing Is Done.

Related Words