# inheritance
## English
### Alternative forms

* enheritance, enheritaunce, inheritaunce (obsolete)
* inhæritance (obsolete, hypercorrect)

### Etymology

Inherited from Middle English enheritaunce, inheritaunce, borrowed from Anglo-Norman, Old French enheritaunce, from enheriter. Equivalent to inherit +‎ -ance.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɪnˈhɛɹɪtəns/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Noun

inheritance (countable and uncountable, plural inheritances)
* The passing of title to an estate upon death.
* (countable) That which a person is entitled to inherit, by law or testament, such as the part of an estate (i.e., a portion).
* (uncountable, especially linguistics, biology) The act or mechanism of inheriting; the state of having inherited.
    The Indo-European languages share various similarities as a result of their inheritance from a common ancestor.
* (biology, genetic algorithms) The biological attributes passed hereditarily from ancestors to their offspring.
* (programming, object-oriented programming) The mechanism whereby parts of a superclass are available to instances of its subclass.

#### Hyponyms

* classical inheritance
* dual inheritance
* dynamic inheritance
* multiple inheritance
* parasitic inheritance
* prototypal inheritance
* static inheritance
* Swiss inheritance

#### Derived terms

* blending inheritance
* composition over inheritance
* inheritance law
* inheritance powder
* inheritance tax
* particulate inheritance
* preheritance
* widow inheritance

#### Related terms

* inherit
* inheritable
* inheritor

#### Translations

Arabic: مِيرَاث m (mīrāṯ), إرْثْ m (ʔirṯ), وِرْث m (wirṯ)
Hijazi Arabic: ورث m (wirs, wirṯ)
Armenian: ժառանգություն (hy) (žaṙangutʻyun)
Avar: ирс (irs)
Azerbaijani: irs, miras (az)
Bashkir: мираҫ (miraś)
Berber:
Tashelhit: ⴰⵢⴷⴰ (ayda)
Bulgarian: наследство (bg) n (nasledstvo)
Catalan: herència (ca) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 遺產 / 遗产 (zh) (yíchǎn)
Dutch: erfenis (nl), erfdeel (nl) n
Egyptian: (jwꜥt f)
Esperanto: heredo
Faroese: ættararvur m
Finnish: perintö (fi) (which is inherited); perintöosa (minimum required by law)
French: héritage (fr) m
Galician: herdanza (gl) f
German: Erbe (de) n, Erbteil (de) n
Gothic: 𐌰𐍂𐌱𐌹 n (arbi), 𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍄𐍃 m (hlauts)
Greek: κληρονομιά (el) f (klironomiá)
Ancient: κληρονομία f (klēronomía)
Hindi: उत्तराधिकार (hi) m (uttarādhikār)
Hungarian: örökség (hu)
Icelandic: dánargjöf f, arfleifð f
Irish: oidhreacht f
Italian: eredità (it) f
Japanese: 遺産 (ja) (いさん, isan)
Kabuverdianu: erdansa
Kyrgyz: мурас (muras)
Latin: herctum n
Lithuanian: palikimas m
Macedonian: наследство n (nasledstvo), оставина f (ostavina)
Maltese: wirt m
Maori: whakareretanga
Ngazidja Comorian: mafa
Old English: ierfe n
Plautdietsch: Oafgoot n
Polish: spadek (pl) m
Portuguese: herança (pt) f
Romanian: moștenire (ro) f
Russian: насле́дство (ru) n (naslédstvo)
Sanskrit: रेक्णस् (sa) n (rekṇas)
Scottish Gaelic: oighreachd f
Serbo-Croatian: nasledstvo (sh) n
Slovak: dedičstvo
Spanish: herencia (es) f, heredad (es) f
Swahili: urithi (sw), mirathi (sw)
Swedish: arv (sv) n
Tagalog: mana, manahan
Thai: มรดก (th) (mɔɔ-rá-dòk)
Turkish: miras (tr), bırakıt (tr), tereke (tr)
Ukrainian: спадок m (spadok), спа́дщина (uk) f (spádščyna)
Walloon: eritaedje (wa) m, eritance (wa) f
Welsh: etifeddiad m, etifeddiadau m pl
Yiddish: ירושה f (yerushe) :
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Further reading

* Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “inheritance”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.