degeneration

Definitions

1. The process or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse.
   countable, uncountable, usually
2. That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure.
   uncountable, usually
3. Gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type.
   uncountable, usually
4. A thing that has degenerated.
   countable, usually

Equivalents

Examples

“The modern cry⟳ of "more liberty and less creed" is a degeneration from a vertebrate to a jellyfish.”

“Hence, regional soil degenerations and podsolization was probably an important factor contributing to the retrogressive change⟳ in the forest composition at the end⟳ of the mesocratic phase..”

“Emmanuel Macron sounded like⟳ a man in grief. Not angry, not defiant, just a little triste. Europe, he lamented, was suffering a “degeneration of democracy”.”

“fatty degeneration of the liver”

“cockle, aracus, […] and other degenerations”

CEFR level