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degenerate

/dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/adjective, noun, verb

degenerate is spelled D-E-G-E-N-E-R-A-T-E: 10 letters and 4 syllables. It appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, degenerate means “Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in degenerate?

Letters10: D-E-G-E-N-E-R-A-T-E
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.1 times per million words; the 18,811th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is degenerate?

Degenerate appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce degenerate?

  • /dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹɪt/

As a verb (“To lose good or desirable qualities”): /dɪˈd͡ʒɛnəɹeɪt/.

Degenerate has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-degenerate.wav, En-us-degenerate-na-noun.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Simplificationalizer-degenerate_(noun).wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of degenerate

  • more degenerate comparative
  • most degenerate superlative
  • degenerates plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • degenerating participle, present
  • degenerated participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does degenerate mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.

  2. 2

    Having lost good or desirable qualities; hence also having bad character or habits, base, immoral, corrupt.

  3. 3

    Having lost functionality in general.

  4. 4

    Having multiple domain elements correspond to one element of the range.

    The genetic code is degenerate because a single amino acid can be coded by one of several codons.

  5. 5

    Qualitatively different, usually simpler, than typical objects of its class.

    A degenerate circle, having radius zero, consists of a single point.

  6. 6

    Having multiple different (linearly independent) eigenvectors.

  7. 7

    Having the same quantum energy level.

noun

  1. 1

    One who is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature; an immoral or corrupt person.

    In the cult of degenerates, acts of decency, kindness and modesty could be seen as acts of apostasy.

verb

  1. 1

    To lose good or desirable qualities.

    His condition continued to degenerate even after admission to hospital.

  2. 2

    To cause to lose good or desirable qualities.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Degenerate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdégradé, dégénéré (having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from…), dépravé (one who is degenerate, who has fallen from…), dégénérer, se dégrader (to lose good or desirable qualities), dégrader (to cause to lose good or desirable qualities)
Germanentartet (having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from…), Asozialer, Assi (one who is degenerate, who has fallen from…), widernatürlich, dekadent, degeneriert (having lost good or desirable qualities)
Portuguesedegenerado (having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from…), degenerar (to lose good or desirable qualities)
Spanishdegenerado (having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from…), depravado (one who is degenerate, who has fallen from…), degenerar, degenerarse (to lose good or desirable qualities)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does degenerate come from?

Learned borrowing from Latin dēgenerātus. See -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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