degenerate

CEFRC1

/dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/

verb · adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To become worse in quality or condition.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Having declined to a worse condition.

Examples

  • There remain great fears of seeing the clashes degenerate into massacres.

  • Though my uncle is homeless, I don't think he is a degenerate.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹeɪt/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. Having lost functionality in general.

  2. Having lost good or desirable qualities; hence also having bad character or habits, base, immoral, corrupt.

adjective

Extra meaning

  1. Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.

More examples

In context

  • A degenerate circle, having radius zero, consists of a single point.

  • In the cult of degenerates, acts of decency, kindness and modesty could be seen as acts of apostasy.

  • The genetic code is degenerate because a single amino acid can be coded by one of several codons.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

He warned that the society would blank without strong values.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

Learned borrowing from Latin dēgenerātus. See -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.