degeneration

From French dégénération, from Latin dēgenerātiō.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˌdʒɛnəˈɹeɪʃən/

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• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: de‧gen‧er‧ation

degeneration (usually uncountable, plural degenerations)

1. (uncountable, countable) The process or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse.
   • 1913, B. H. Carrol, An Interpretation of the English Bible:

     The modern cry of "more liberty and less creed" is a degeneration from a vertebrate to a jellyfish.

   • 1987, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, page 10:

     Hence, regional soil degenerations and podsolization was probably an important factor contributing to the retrogressive change in the forest composition at the end of the mesocratic phase..

2. (uncountable) 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.

   fatty degeneration of the liver

3. (uncountable) Gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type.
4. (countable) A thing that has degenerated.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

     cockle, aracus, […] and other degenerations

• (process or state of growing worse): decadence, decline, degradation, debasement, degeneracy, deterioration
• (gaming slang): nerf

• degenerate
• degenerative

degeneration c (singular definite degenerationen, not used in plural form)

1. degeneration

• “degeneration” in Den Danske Ordbog

degeneration c

1. degeneration

• degeneration in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• degeneration in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• degeneration in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)