Inheritance

How to spell inheritance

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce inheritance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inheritance mean?

1. nounMoney, property, or a title passed to someone after the death of its previous owner.
2. nounThe passing of physical or behavioural traits from parents to offspring through genes.

Inheritance in a sentence

• She used her inheritance to clear the mortgage on the house.

• The textbook chapter on inheritance describes how eye colour passes between generations.

• The solicitor explained how the inheritance would be divided between the three siblings.

• Researchers studied the inheritance of the disorder across four generations of one family.

Where does inheritance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin heres, meaning 'heir' or 'one who succeeds to property', from which Latin formed the verb hereditare, 'to make an heir of' or 'to inherit'. Late Latin added the prefix in-, giving inhereditare, the sense being to take something into one's possession by succession. The word reached English in the 1300s through Old French enheriter, and the noun form settled with the Latin-flavoured ending -ance. The same heres root survives in the modern words 'heir', 'heritage', and 'hereditary', which is a useful memory hook, since the 'herit' in the middle of inheritance is the very part writers tend to garble. Keep that 'herit' core intact and the ending becomes the only real decision: it is -ance, not -ence.

How the word is built

• in- (in, into)
• herit (heir, from Latin heres)
• -ance (noun-forming suffix)