Degenerate
English Meaning
Having become worse than one's kind, or one's former state; having declined in worth; having lost in goodness; deteriorated; degraded; unworthy; base; low.
- Having declined, as in function or nature, from a former or original state: a degenerate form of an ancient folk art.
- Having fallen to an inferior or undesirable state, especially in mental or moral qualities.
- Physics Relating to two or more quantum states that share the same quantum numbers: degenerate energy levels.
- Physics Characterized by great density and consisting of atoms stripped of electrons: degenerate matter.
- Medicine Characterized by degeneration, as of tissue, a cell, or an organ.
- Biology Having lost one or more highly developed functions, characteristics, or structures through evolution: a degenerate life form.
- Genetics Having more than one codon that may code for the same amino acid.
- A depraved, corrupt, or vicious person.
- A person lacking or having progressively lost normative biological or psychological characteristics.
- 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.
- To decline in quality: The quality of his writing degenerated as he continued to drink.
- To undergo degeneration.
