DEGENERACY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does degeneracy mean? 

• DEGENERACY (noun)
  The noun DEGENERACY has 2 senses:

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

2. moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles

  Familiarity information: DEGENERACY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEGENERACY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being degenerate in mental or moral qualities

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

decadence; decadency; degeneracy; degeneration

Hypernyms ("degeneracy" is a kind of...):

abasement; abjection; degradation (a low or downcast state)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

corruption; degeneracy; depravation; depravity; putrefaction

Context example:

Rome had fallen into moral putrefaction

Hypernyms ("degeneracy" is a kind of...):

immorality (the quality of not being in accord with standards of right or good conduct)

 Context examples 

You are a mere infant, but you'll go next, Jo, and we'll be left lamenting, said Laurie, shaking his head over the degeneracy of the times.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

These, in turn, were crowded out by Japanese women, doll-like, stepping mincingly on wooden clogs; by Eurasians, delicate featured, stamped with degeneracy; by full-bodied South-Sea-Island women, flower-crowned and brown-skinned.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

These struldbrugs and I would mutually communicate our observations and memorials, through the course of time; remark the several gradations by which corruption steals into the world, and oppose it in every step, by giving perpetual warning and instruction to mankind; which, added to the strong influence of our own example, would probably prevent that continual degeneracy of human nature so justly complained of in all ages.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)