Degeneracy

Definitions: Degeneracy

Degeneracy

Noun

1. The state of being degenerate in mental or moral qualities.

2. Moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles: "the luxury and corruption among the upper classes"; "moral degeneracy followed intellectual degeneration"; "its brothels; its opium parlors; its depravity".

Date "degeneracy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Note: Degeneracy \De*gen"er*a*cy\, noun. [From Degenerate,]. (Websters 1913)

Domain	Definitions
Electrical Engineering	A condition in which free electrons have to overlap in space in order to be contained within a semiconductor region, because the majority-carrier density and free-electron diameter are no longer compatible. Source: European Union. (references)
Public Administration	In a resonant device degeneracy is the condition where two or more modes have the same resonant frequency. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The word degeneracy has more than one meaning:

In general, "degeneracy" means "reverting to an earlier, simpler, state"
In mathematics, a limiting case in which a class of object changes its nature so as to belong to another, usually simpler, class. See mathematical degeneracy.
In physics, the mathematical meaning applies, and also see degenerate matter.
The term "moral degeneracy" is sometimes used, based on the concept of atavism.
The Nazis described modernist art as "degenerate art".

Synonyms: Degeneracy

Synonyms: corruption (n), decadence (n), decadency (n), degeneration (n), depravity (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Deterioration	Degeneracy, degeneration, degenerateness; degradation; depravation, depravement; devolution; depravity; demoralization, retrogression; masochism.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Degeneracy

English words defined with "degeneracy": corruption ♦ Degenerateness, Depravation, depravity ♦ Pravity. (references)

Specialty definitions using "degeneracy": Degenerate ♦ M and S configuration, Mayer and Schmidt configuration ♦ Obadiah. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Degeneracy Graphs and Simplex Cycling (Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, Vol 357) (reference) Degeneracy, Its Causes, Signs and Results (History of Hereditarian Thought Volume 30) (reference) Noether-Lefschetz Problems for Degeneracy Loci (reference) Postoptimal Analyses, Parametric Programming, and Related Topics: Degeneracy, Multicriteria Decision Making Redundancy (reference) Schubert Varieties and Degeneracy Loci (Lecture Notes in Mathematics (Springer-Verlag), 1689) (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Joseph Addison	But in all despotic governments, though a particular prince may favour arts and letter, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	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: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Degeneracy" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Degeneracy" is used about 94 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
Noun (singular)	100%	94	33,845

Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "degeneracy": non-degeneracy.
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 "degeneracy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		degjenerim (degeneration, degradation, devolution), rënie (abatement, bathos, collapse, come down, decadence, decadency, decay, decline, decrepitude, degradation, degression, depression, descent, dilapidation, downfall, drop, drop off, fall, falling, flop, incidence, lapse, letdown, precipitation, prolapse, recession, regress, spill, taper, tumble, wane). (various references)

Arabic		‏تفسخ (decadence, decay, degenerate, degeneration, degradation, derogate, disintegrate, disintegration, molder, moulder, rot), ‏إنحلال (decadence, decay, degeneration, degradation, disintegration, dissolution, foulness, laxity, loosestrife, putrefaction, putridity, resolution, solution). (various references)

Bulgarian		упадък (decadence, decadency, declination, decline, degeneration, degradation, depravation, descent, labefaction, regress, regression, retrogression), изроденост, дегенерираност. (various references)

Czech		degenerovanost. (various references)

Danish		degeneration (degeneratio, degeneration, devolution, fouling, running out(of a strain)). (various references)

Dutch		degeneratie (degeneratio, degeneration, devolution, fouling, involution, running out(of a strain)), ontaarding (degeneratio, degeneration). (various references)

Finnish		degeneraatioaste. (various references)

French		dégénérescence (decline, degeneratio, degeneration, deterioration, devolution, orbital decay). (various references)

German		entartung (degenerateness, degeneratio, degeneration). (various references)

Greek		εκφυλισμός (degeneratio, degeneration, running out(of a strain)). (various references)

Hebrew		שחיתות (corruption, decadence, demoralization, depravity, immorality, perversion, perversity, turpitude). (various references)

Hungarian		elkorcsosulás (degeneration), degeneráltság. (various references)

Indonesian		degenerasi (degeneration). (various references)

Italian		degenerazione (degeneratio, degeneration, running out(of a strain)). (various references)

Pig Latin		egeneracyday

Portuguese		degenerescencia, degeneração (bastardy, degeneratio, degeneration, devolution), abastardamento. (various references)

Romanian		degenerare (degeneration, degradation, deterioration, retrogradation, retrogression). (various references)

Russian		вырождение (degeneration, devolution). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		izrođenost (degeneration). (various references)

Spanish		degeneración (degeneratio, degeneration, involution, running out(of a strain)). (various references)

Swedish		degenerering (degeneration, degradation), degeneration (degeneration, devolution, running out(of a strain)). (various references)

Turkish		dejenere olma, yozlaşma (degeneration, devolution, dry rot, gangrene, graft, retrogression, taint). (various references)

Ukranian		виродження (degeneration, deterioration, devolution), занепад (anticlimax, blight, chute, decadence, decadency, decay, declension, declination, decline, degeneration, depression, down grade, nadir, sunset, waste, wasting), дегенеративність. (various references)

Vietnamese		sự thoái hoá (degeneration), sự suy đ�"i (decadence, decadency, declination, degeneration, labefaction, lapse). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Misspellings
	"Degeneracy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: degenearcy, Degener. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "degeneracy" (pronounced dije"nerusē)
4	-er u s ē	accuracy, confederacy, illiteracy, inaccuracy, literacy.
3	-u s ē	adequacy, advocacy, Argosy, aristocracy, autocracy, bureaucracy, candidacy, celibacy, conspiracy, courtesy, delicacy, democracy, diplomacy, ecstasy, embassy, fallacy, fantasy, Geodesy, heresy, hypocrisy, idiocy, illegitimacy, immediacy, inadequacy, intimacy, intricacy, jealousy, legacy, legitimacy, leprosy, lunacy, meritocracy, obstinacy, Odyssey, papacy, pharmacy, piracy, pleurisy, policy, primacy, privacy, prophecy, secrecy, supremacy, surrogacy, theocracy.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-d-e-e-e-g-n-r-y"
	-2 letters: careened, decenary, renegade.
	-3 letters: angered, ardency, deanery, decayer, derange, encaged, enraged, grandee, greened, grenade, recaned, regency, reneged, yearend, yearned.
	-4 letters: agency, agreed, anergy, cadger, careen, carney, cedarn, craned, dancer, danger, decane, decare, decern, decree, degree, denary, dragee, earned, encage, endear, energy, enrage, gander, garden, geared, gender, genera, graced, grayed, greedy, greeny, greyed, gyrene, nacred, neared, needer, ranged, recane, recede, redeny, redeye, renege, yarned, yeaned.
	-5 letters: acned, acred, agene, agree, anger, angry, arced, cadge, cadgy, cadre, caged, cager, cagey, candy, caned, caner, cared, carny, cedar, ceder, cered, crane, creed, cyder, dance, deary, decay, decry, denar, deray, eager, eagre, eared, edger, ender, gayer, genre, grace, grade, grand, greed, green, gyred, nacre, needy, nerdy, raced, raged, ragee, rance, randy, ranee, range, rangy, rayed, ready, redan, redye, reedy, regna, yager, yearn.
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.