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Definition of hereditary : 1. Descended, or capable of descending, from an ancestor to an heir at law; received or passing by inheritance, or that must pass by inheritance; as, an hereditary estate or crown.
2. Transmitted, or capable of being transmitted, as a constitutional quality or condition from a parent to a child; as, hereditary pride, bravery, disease.

Synonyms:

be descended from, carry, cross-fertilize, come to, contractable, cross-fertilization, come into, heritable, communicable, inherited, chromosome, kin, native, genic, birthright, precede, transmissible, transmitted, cloning, patrimonial, clone, inheritable, bequeath, claimant, be, study at innate, come down to, innate, familial, contagious, inborn, cross, congenital, beneficiary, catching, genetical, carrier, transmittable, genetic, bequest, deoxyribonucleic acid, cut off

maternal, motherly, akin, brotherly, fraternal, ancestral, kindred, fatherly, consanguine, related, familiar, relative, sisterly, paternal

Usage examples:

• The office was hereditary. - "Witch-Doctors", Charles Beadle.
• James Jackson did not fancy hereditary monarchy or purse- proud aristocracy. - "Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution", L. Carroll Judson.
• If a man is called Jones, all his descendants in the direct male line are called Jones; this follows from the fact that the property is hereditary. - "Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy", Bertrand Russell.