degenerate

noun

One who is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature; an immoral or corrupt person.

verb

(intransitive) To lose good or desirable qualities.

(transitive) To cause to lose good or desirable qualities.

adjective

(of qualities) Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.

(of a person or system) Having lost good or desirable qualities; hence also having bad character or habits, base, immoral, corrupt. ABR

Having lost functionality in general.

(of an encoding or function) Having multiple domain elements correspond to one element of the range.

(mathematics) Qualitatively different, usually simpler, than typical objects of its class.

(mathematics, of an eigenvalue) Having multiple different (linearly independent) eigenvectors.

(physics) Having the same quantum energy level.

Roots

genusgen- · Latin · kind, birth

Synonyms for degenerate

debauchedadj dissoluteadj deterioratev degradedadj deviantadj pervertn profligateadj depravedadj debasedadj debaucheen decadentadj decayn reprobaten corruptedadj rotn

Synonyms & related words for degenerate

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of degenerate — including debauched, dissolute, deteriorate, degraded, deviant, pervert. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to degenerate

Explore words related to degenerate — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include degenerately, degeneracy, devolve, libertine, dissipated, decadency, riotous, degeneration. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for degenerate

Common synonyms for degenerate include debauched, dissolute, deteriorate, degraded, deviant, pervert, profligate, depraved — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does degenerate come from?

The word degenerate breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root gen-, from Latin genus (“kind, birth”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.