Definition of "degeneracy" [de•gen•er•a•cy]

• The process of degenerating. (noun)
• The state of being degenerate. (noun)
• Corrupt, vulgar, vicious behavior, especially sexual perversion. (noun)
• Genetics The presence in the genetic code of multiple codons for the same amino acid. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "How often I have I known him affect an open brow and a jovial manner, joining in the games of the gentry, and even in the sports of the common people, in order to invest himself with a temporary degree of popularity; while, in fact, his heart was bursting to witness what he called the degeneracy of the times, the decay of activity among the aged, and the want of zeal in the rising generation."
• "_seemed_, because what we call degeneracy is often but the unveiling of what was there all the time; and the evil we could become, we are."
• "-- But for this precious seed, the chosen people would have resembled the cities of the plain, both in degeneracy of character and in merited doom."