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Inheritance

1. The act or state of inheriting; as, the inheritance of an estate; the inheritance of mental or physical qualities.

2. That which is or may be inherited; that which is derived by an heir from an ancestor or other person; a heritage; a possession which passes by descent. When the man dies, let the inheritance descend unto the daughter. (Shak)

3. A permanent or valuable possession or blessing, especially. One received by gift or without purchase; a benefaction. To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. (1 pet. I. 4)

4. Possession; ownership; acquisition. The inheritance of their loves. To you th inheritance belongs by right Of brothers praise; to you eke longs his love. (Spenser)

5. (Science: biology) transmission and reception by animal or plant generation.

6. A perpetual or continuing right which a man and his heirs have to an estate; an estate which a man has by descent as heir to another, or which he may transmit to another as his heir; an estate derived from an ancestor to an heir in course of law.

The word inheritance (used simply) is mostly confined to the title to land and tenements by a descent. Men are not proprietors of what they have, merely for themselves; their children have a title to part of it which comes to be wholly theirs when death has put an end to their parents use of it; and this we call inheritance. (Locke)

Origin: cf. OF. Enheritance. Hereditary succession to a title or an office or property.(genetics) attributes acquired via biological heredity from the parents.The genetic material that is passed on from parents to offspring, therefore pre-determining the phenotype of the offspring (before any other factor like mutations take effect).