Definition of "degeneration" []

• The process of degenerating. (noun)
• The state of being degenerate. (noun)
• Medicine Gradual deterioration of specific tissues, cells, or organs with corresponding impairment or loss of function, caused by injury, disease, or aging. (noun)
• Biology The evolutionary decline or loss of a function, characteristic, or structure in an organism or a species. (noun)
• Electronics Loss of or gain in power in an amplifier caused by unintentional negative feedback. (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.

• "Nordau all but copyrighted the term degeneration, the title of his best-selling book.43 Degeneration for Nordau designated irrational and romantic ideas in culture, a decay of reason."
• "I. was an institution endowed with important functions. (_b_) I. is found to be unusually prevalent among savages and primitive races, whereas the term degeneration is generally limited to higher civilization (I. Bloch)."
• "The application of the term degeneration may be, and should be, it seems to me, limited to the signs, whether physical or mental, which indicate an obviously downward tendency."