What does "inherit" mean?

1. (money or property) to receive money, property, or a title from someone after they die. 2. (physical traits) to get a physical feature or personality trait from your parents or ancestors. 3. (a situation) to deal with a situation or problem that was left behind by the person who had your job before you. 4. (programming) to receive features or code from another part of a computer program.

How do you use "inherit"?

Often used with the preposition 'from'.

inherit

US //ˌɪnˈhɛɹət// UK //ɪnhˈɛɹɪt// in·her·it

1 money or property (v.)
B2 Upper Intermediate Law

to receive money, property, or a title from someone after they die.

to receive property, rank, or a title by legal succession or as a result of a will.

Example

She inherited a large house from her grandmother last year.

Example

Upon the sudden passing of his uncle, he inherited the family estate along with the significant debts attached to it.

Usage

Often used with the preposition 'from'.
- bequeathed
- succeed
- disinherit
2 physical traits (v.)
B2 Upper Intermediate Science

to get a physical feature or personality trait from your parents or ancestors.

to receive a characteristic from one's ancestors through genetic transmission.

Example

He inherited his father's blue eyes and his mother's musical talent.

Example

Geneticists are studying how certain predispositions for heart disease are inherited across multiple generations.
- acquire

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3 a situation (v.)
B2 Upper Intermediate

to deal with a situation or problem that was left behind by the person who had your job before you.

to receive or take over a situation, often a problematic one, from a predecessor.

Example

The new manager inherited a lot of problems from the previous team.

Example

The incoming administration inherited a fragile economy and a series of unresolved diplomatic tensions.
- take over
- acquire
4 programming (v.)
C1 Advanced Technical Computing

to receive features or code from another part of a computer program.

to derive existing functionality or attributes from a superclass in object-oriented programming.

Example

In this code, the 'Car' class will inherit all the features of the 'Vehicle' class.

Example

By ensuring the subclass inherits from the base component, developers can reuse core logic without duplicating code across the application.
- derive

Origin

From Middle English enheriten, from Old French enheriter, from Late Latin inhereditare (“make heir”). Displaced native Old English ierfan.

Word family

Verbinherit
Nouninheritance