Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Degenerate |
DegenerateAdjective1. Unrestrained by convention or morality; "Congreve draws a debauched aristocratic society"; "deplorably dissipated and degraded"; "riotous living"; "fast women". Noun1. A person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior. Verb1. Become worse or disintegrate; "His mind deteriorated". 2. Grow worse; "Her condition deteriorated". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "degenerate" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | DEGENERATE, adj. Less conspicuously admirable than one's ancestors. The contemporaries of Homer were striking examples of degeneracy; it required ten of them to raise a rock or a riot that one of the heroes of the Trojan war could have raised with ease. Homer never tires of sneering at "men who live in these degenerate days," which is perhaps why they suffered him to beg his bread -- a marked instance of returning good for evil, by the way, for if they had forbidden him he would certainly have starved. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Literature | Degenerate (4 syl.) is to be worse than the parent stock. (Latin, de genus.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: DegenerateSynonyms: debauched (adj), degraded (adj), dissipated (adj), dissolute (adj), fast (adj), libertine (adj), profligate (adj), riotous (adj), deviant (n), deviate (n), pervert (n), deteriorate (v), drop (v). (additional references) |
| Antonym: recuperate (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Deterioration | Verb: be worse, be deteriorated, become worse, become deteriorated; Adjective:; have seen better days, deteriorate, degenerate, fall off; wane; (decrease); ebb; retrograde; - decline, droop; go down; (sink); go downhill, go from bad to worse,Verb: be worse, be deteriorated, become worse, become deteriorated; Adjective:; have seen better days, deteriorate, degenerate, fall off; wane; (decrease); ebb; retrograde; - decline, droop; go down; (sink); go downhill, go from bad to worse, go farther and fare worse; jump out of the frying pan into the fire. |
Adjective: unimproved; (improve; ); deteriorated; Verb: altered, altered for the worse; injured; Verb: sprung; withering, spoiling; Verb: on the wane, on the decline; tabid; degenerate; marescent; worse; the worse for, all the worse for; out of repair, out of tune; imperfect; the worse for wear; battered; weathered, weather-beaten; stale, passe, shaken, dilapidated, frayed, faded, wilted, shabby, secondhand, threadbare; worn, worn to a thread, worn to a shadow, worn to the stump, worn to rags; reduced, reduced to a skeleton; far gone; tacky. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Degenerate |
| English words defined with "degenerate": bigheaded ♦ danaid, danaid butterfly, decadence, decadency, Degener, degeneracy, Degenerated, Degenerately, Degenerating, degeneration, Degenerous, depravity ♦ Hinderling, hydatid mole, hydatidiform mole ♦ legless lizard ♦ molar pregnancy ♦ On liking ♦ Pectostraca, persnickety, pulsar ♦ snooty, snot-nosed, snotty, stuck-up ♦ too big for one's breeches, turpitude ♦ uppish. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "degenerate": desmosome, Desmosomes ♦ Fiber Distributed Data Interface ♦ Johnson/Lark-Horowitz effect ♦ TUPLE. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "degenerate": Degenerous. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | And I like the way you express yourself too, y'know, it's pithy yet degenerate. You get many dates (Manhattan; writing credit: Woody Allen ; Marshall Brickman) I apologize, sir, for not telling you sooner that you're a degenerate, sadistic old man. And you can go to hell before I apologize to you now or ever again (Paths of Glory; writing credit: Stanley Kubrick) | |
Lyrics | Degenerate the faithful (Rock the Casbah; performing artist: The Clash) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Ultimate Degenerate (1969) Degenerate Art (1993) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Degenerate period of early twentieth-century New Orleans architecture. Louisiana. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Abominable; amoral; atrocious; base; contemptible; corrupt; debased; degenerate; depraved; devilish; dissolute; egregious; evil; fiendish; flagitious; foul; gross; guilty; heartless; heinous; immoral; impious; impish; incorrigible; indecent; iniquitous; i. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Peter F. Drucker | Everything must degenerate into work if anything is to happen. |
Virgil | Fear is proof of a degenerate mind. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
John Locke | 1690 | And were it not for the corruption and vitiousness of degenerate men, there would be no need of any other; no necessity that men should separate from this great and natural community, and by positive agreements combine into smaller and divided associations. (Second Treatise of Government) |
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | 1963 | We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. (Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1956) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | And all is well, provided the light return and the eclipse do not degenerate into night |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The rest degenerate and disappear over the years. (references) | |
As the hippocampal neurons degenerate, short-term memory falters. (references) | ||
All forms of muscular dystrophy, however, grow worse as muscles progressively degenerate. (references) | ||
Economic History | Australia | Such protests, while often vociferous, rarely (if ever) degenerate into violence. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Degenerate" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 61.78% of the time. "Degenerate" is used about 225 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 61.78% | 139 | 26,913 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 22.22% | 50 | 48,117 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 11.11% | 25 | 69,787 |
| Noun (singular) | 4.89% | 11 | 106,044 |
| Total | 100.00% | 225 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "degenerate": degenerate distribution. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "degenerate": non-degenerate. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "degenerate"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | degjeneroj (cause, corrupt), i keqësuar, i degjeneruar (corrupt, degraded), bastard (bastard, misbegotten, mongrel). (various references) | |
Arabic | فسد (be corrupted, be decayed, be decomposed, be depraved, be evil, be immoral, be marred, be pervert, be putrid, be rotten, be spoiled, be vicious, become corrupted, become decayed, become decomposed, become depraved, become evil, become immoral, become marred, become pervert, become perverted, become putrid, become rotten, become spoiled, become vicious, contaminate, corrupt, decay, decompose, deprave, deteriorate, disintegrate, foul, go bad, impair, infect, mangle, mar, mess, mess up, misrule, putrefy, rot, spoil, spoilt), فاسد الأخلاق, منحل (degenerated, deteriorated, disintegrator, lax, unfastened, untied), منحط (base, decadent, degraded, ignoble, low, low down, low-grade, lowly, mean, vile), متفسخ (decadent, degenerated), نحل (attenuate, decompose, disband, disentangle, disintegrate, dissolve, emaciate, loosen, melt, pervert, pine, resolve, slim, thin, unravel, untie, unwind), تفسخ (decadence, decay, degeneracy, degeneration, degradation, derogate, disintegrate, disintegration, molder, moulder, rot), المنحرف تناسليا, إنحط (decay, decline, degrade, ebb, retrograde). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | западнал човек, изроден (degraded, depraved, monstrous, vestigial), дегенерат (pervert), дегенерирал. (various references) | |
Chinese | 退化 (Degenerated, Degenerating, Degeneration, Degenerative, Degradation, Devolution), 退步 (regress), 腐朽 (decadent, decayed, rotten), 敗類 (scum of a community), 墮 (destroy, fall, overthrow). (various references) | |
Czech | degenerovat, zvrhnout se, zvrhlík (pervert), zvrhlý (perverse), zvlèilý, zdegenerovaný. (various references) | |
Danish | degenereret fordeling (causal distribution, degenerate distribution, deterministic distribution). (various references) | |
Dutch | verbasteren (bribe), ontaarden, degenereren. (various references) | |
Esperanto | degenerita, degeneri. (various references) | |
Faeroese | spillast, kryplast, úrskeplast. (various references) | |
Farsi | فاسدشدن (Canker, Decay, Gangrene, Putrefy, Spoil, Vitiate), منحط (Amiss, Decadent), روبه انحطاطگذاردن . (various references) | |
Finnish | degeneroitua, rappeutunut (. . out of repair, dilapidated, tumbledown), rappeutua (become dilapidated, fall into decay). (various references) | |
French | dégénéré (degenerative, degraded). (various references) | |
German | entarten (deganerate, to degenerate), ausarten (become unruly, get out of control, get out of hand, misbehave, to degenerate), degenerieren. (various references) | |
Greek | καταντώ, έκφυλος (deviant, dissolute), εκφυλισμένοσ, εκφυλίζω, εκφυλίζομαι. (various references) | |
Hebrew | לשקוע (be immersed, bog, decay, decline, sag, settle, sink, socket, subside), ל"ת ון (atrophy, decadent, languish, run to seed, waste away), ל ון (atrophy, blast), ל בול (fade, perish, run to seed, wear away, wilt, wither), "' רט, חות (coarse, disadvantaged, inferior, low, second rate, subordinate, tinpot). (various references) | |
Hungarian | korcs (bastard, cur, hybrid, misbegotten, mongrel, tyke), degenerált. (various references) | |
Indonesian | orang yang merosot akhlaknya. (various references) | |
Italian | degenere, degenerato, degenerare (go to the dogs). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 退歩 , 退廃的 (decadent), 変性 (denature). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たいほ (apprehension, arrest, capture, your personal name), たいはいてき (decadent), へ"せい (composition, denature, eccentric personality, formation, forming, metamorphosis, organization). (various references) | |
Manx | mee-ghooghysagh, goll ny smessey (deteriorate, get worse, worsen). (various references) | |
Norwegian | utarte. (various references) | |
Papiamen | degenerá. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | egenerateday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | degenerar (derogate, deteriorate, retrograde, retrogress, run wild), degenerado (bastard), corromper‐se. (various references) | |
Romanian | degenerat, degenera (degrade, depauperate, deteriorate, dewindle, rot), decãzut (corrupt, debased, decayed, low down, ruinous), lepãdãturã (abortion, freak, scoundrel, villain). (various references) | |
Russian | вырождаться дегенерат, выродок (black sheep, the black sheep), выродившийся, дегенеративный (degenerative), дегенерат (geek). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | degenerisati, degenerisan, degenerik, izroditi se, izrod, izrođen. (various references) | |
Spanish | degenerar (bastardize, retrogress). (various references) | |
Swedish | urarta (degrade, deteriorate, turn), degenerera. (various references) | |
Turkish | dejenere olmak (retrograde), dejenere (bastardized), yozlaşmak (bastardize, retrogress), yozlaşmış (atrophied, bastardized, corrupt, putrid), yoz hayvan, yoz, soyu bozulmak, soysuzlaşmış, soysuz (baseborn, yellow dog), bozulmuş kimse, bozulmuş (abashed, broken down, cankered, contaminated, corrupt, flyblown, gone, out, putrid, rank, ropy, ruined, spoilt, unmade, upset, withered, wrecked). (various references) | |
Turkmen | зьpremek. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | ставати гіршими, розбещений (abandoned, bad, corrupt, debauched, depraved, filthy, licentious, miscreant, spoilt, wanton, wild), виродок (bantling, bastard, deformity, golliwog, monster, yellow dog), вироджуватися, зіпсований (addle, adulterated, bad, base, corrupt, debauched, decadent, deformed, miscreant, naughty, out of order, spoilt, unsound, wrong), звироднілий (depauperate), погіршуватися (break down, degrade, disimprove, dwindle, slacken), погіршений (aggravated, degraded), дегенеративний (degenerative), дегенерат. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | thoái hoá, suy đ"i (decadent). (various references) | |
Welsh | dirywio (deteriorate). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | degenero, deteriora, deterius, perdita, perditam, perditi, perditis, perditorum, perditum, perditus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Jeremiah Chapter 2, Verse 21 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Egw de efuteusa se ampelon karpoforon pasan alhqinhn pwV estrafhV eiV pikrian h ampeloV h allotria |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Ego autem plantavi te vineam electam omne semen verum quomodo ergo conversa es in pravum vinea aliena |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | I forsothe plauntede thee a chosen vyneyerd, al verre sed; what maner thanne thou art turned to me in to a shreude thing, an aliene vyne? |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me? |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | But when you were planted by me, you were a noble vine, in every way a true seed: how then have you been changed into the branching plant of a strange vine? |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Jeremiah Chapter 2, Verse 21 |
| Cebuano | Bisan pa niana gitanum ko ikaw nga usa ka harianong parras, sa tim-os usa ka binhi nga maayo: nan naunsa nga nahimo man ikaw nga nagakadunot nga mga sanga sa usa ka lumalangyaw nga parras alang kanako? |
| Croatian | A ja te zasadih kao lozu izabranu, k'o sadnicu plemenitu. Kako li mi se samo prometnu u jalov izrod, u lozu divlju! |
| Danish | Som en Ædelranke plantede jeg dig, en fuldgod Stikling; hvor kunde du da blive Vildskud, en uægte Ranke? |
| Dutch | Ik had u toch geplant, een edelen wijnstok, een geheel getrouw zaad; hoe zijt gij Mij dan veranderd in verbasterde ranken van een vreemden wijnstok? |
| Finnish | Minä olin istuttanut sinut jaloksi viiniköynnökseksi, puhtaimmasta siemenestä; kuinka olet muuttunut minulle vieraan viinipuun villiköynnöksiksi? |
| French | Je t`avais plantée comme une vigne excellente Et du meilleur plant; Comment as-tu changé, Dégénéré en une vigne étrangère? |
| German | Ich aber hatte dich gepflanzt zu einem süßen Weinstock, einen ganz rechtschaffenen Samen. Wie bist du mir denn geraten zu einem bitteren, wilden Weinstock? |
| Haitian Creole | Mwen te plante ou tankou yon pye rezen kalite, ki soti nan bon semans. Men koulye a, gade jan ou chanje: Ou tounen yon vye pye rezen mawon. M' pa konnen kote ou soti. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Engkau Kutanam seperti pohon anggur yang Kupilih dari benih yang unggul. Tapi sekarang engkau berubah, menjadi tanaman liar dan tak berguna. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Bukankah Aku sudah menanam engkau seperti pokok anggur yang terutama, dari pada benih yang tulen? maka bagaimana gerangan engkau sudah berubah begitu dan menjadi pokok anggur hutan, yang amat rusak tabiatnya? |
| Italian | Io ti avevo piantato come vigna scelta, tutta di vitigni genuini; ora, come mai ti sei mutata in tralci degeneri di vigna bastarda? |
| Maori | He waina pai ano koe i taku whakatokanga i a koe, he momo pai katoa. Na te aha koe i puta ke ai ki ahau, he mea kua heke te tupu, he waina ke? |
| Norwegian | Og enda hadde jeg plantet dig som en edel ranke, helt igjennem av ekte sæd; hvorledes er du da blitt omskapt for mig til ville skudd av et fremmed vintre? |
| Portuguese | Todavia eu mesmo te plantei como vide excelente, uma semente inteiramente fiel; como, pois, te tornaste para mim uma planta degenerada, de vida estranha? |
| Rumanian | Te sqdisem ca o vie minunatq wi de cel mai bun soi: cum te-ai schimbat wi te-ai prefqcut kntr`o coardq de viyq sqlbaticq? |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "degenerate": degenerated, degenerately, degenerateness, degeneratenesses, degenerates. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "degenerate": nondegenerate. (additional references) | |
Words containing "degenerate": nondegenerates. (additional references) | |
| |
"Degenerate" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Degener, Devendra. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "degenerate" (pronounced dije"nerut or dije"nerā't) |
| 3 | -er u t | accurate, barbiturate, commensurate, confederate, conglomerate, considerate, corporate, illiterate, inaccurate, deliberate, directorate, disparate, doctorate, electorate, emirate, favorite, inspectorate, intemperate, inveterate, literate, moderate, protectorate, triumvirate. |
| 6 | -j e" n er ā' t | generate, regenerate. |
| 5 | -e" n er ā' t | venerate. |
| 4 | -n er ā' t | exonerate, incinerate. |
| 3 | -er ā' t | agglomerate, ameliorate, accelerate, adulterate, collaborate, commemorate, commiserate, cooperate, corroborate, inaugurate, incarcerate, decelerate, decorate, deteriorate, enumerate, evaporate, eviscerate, exaggerate, exasperate, exhilarate, federate, incorporate, invigorate, lacerate, liberate, obliterate, operate, perforate, proliferate, recuperate, redecorate, refrigerate, reincorporate, reinvigorate, reiterate, reverberate, saturate, separate, tolerate. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-e-e-e-e-g-n-r-t" | |
-1 letter: generated, greatened. | |
-2 letters: generate, renegade, teenaged, teenager. | |
-3 letters: angered, derange, deterge, dragnet, enraged, entered, etagere, grandee, granted, grantee, greaten, greened, greeted, grenade, negated, negater, reagent, reneged, teenage. | |
-4 letters: agreed, anteed, ardent, argent, danger, degree, derate, dragee, earned, endear, enrage, entera, entree, ergate, eterne, gander, garden, garnet, geared, gender, genera, gerent, grated, neared, neater, needer. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-e-e-e-e-g-n-r-t" | |
+1 letter: degenerated, degenerates, regenerated. | |
+2 letters: degenerately, degenerative. | |
+3 letters: nondegenerate. | |
+4 letters: degenerateness, nondegenerates. | |
+5 letters: exaggeratedness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Sounds 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Historic 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Bible Trace 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
