hereditary disease
1
3.9
- noun
- /həˈrɛdɪˌtɛri dɪˈziːz/
- Specialized
:
enfermedad hereditaria
- The issue of November 1968 addresses the problems of hereditary diseases.
Examples
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Neither family has any hereditary diseases that I am aware of, so she should be healthy.
Fiction book (1999) -
We can eliminate hereditary diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, sickle-cell anemia.
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But then look at all the other hereditary diseases we are passing along to our children—diabetes, Tay-Sachs, Huntington's, multiple sclerosis, etc.
Blog text (3) -
Is Alzheimer's disease a hereditary disease that can be passed down from generation to generation?
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Few people will resist the introduction of a genetic technique that eliminates a hereditary disease caused by mutations in specific genes.
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Individuals with the hereditary disease known as phenylketonuria need to follow a special diet to avoid health complications.
Synonyms
12
3.5
A health problem caused by a change in a person's genes that can be passed from parents
9
4.2
A health problem caused by changes in a person's genes that parents pass on
6
4.4
A health problem from a change in someone's genes often passed from parents
3
4.6
A change in a person's genes that causes a disease
2
3.0
A disease passed from parents to their children through genes
1
4.0
A health problem parents can pass to their children through genes
1
4.2
A disease parents pass to their children in their genes
A disease caused by a change in a single gene that a person inherits
A disease passed from parents caused by several genes acting together
An inherited disease caused by many genes, for example high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes
A disease that appears when a child gets two copies of a faulty gene on a non-sex chromosome
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally transparent: 'hereditary' (transmitted by genes) modifies 'disease' (a medical condition), so their combination clearly denotes a disease passed through inheritance. This adjective + noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English composition, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Hereditary disease comes from the idea of something being passed down in a family: hereditary means given by parents and disease means an illness. Imagine parents passing a small part called a gene to a child and that part makes them ill, so hereditary disease means 'a disease passed from parents to children'.