How to Use degeneracy in a Sentence

degeneracy

noun
  • The stereotype of gay degeneracy seemed absurd when applied to her.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 23 Aug. 2020
  • Iran could use it as ultimate proof as to the degeneracy of the American way.
    — Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Jan. 2018
  • The nihilism, or the degeneracy, is coming straight from the White House.
    — Nina Bambysheva, Forbes.com, 12 May 2025
  • It wasn’t sacked by Lego-man Visigoths or brought down by the parasitic forces of degeneracy.
    — Cecilia D'anastasio, Wired, 10 June 2021
  • Moral watchdogs cried foul and claimed these movies not only desensitized kids to degeneracy — think of the children!
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 11 June 2021
  • The minimum size of a white dwarf is controlled by something called electron degeneracy pressure.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 19 Dec. 2024
  • These positrons would ever-so-slowly destroy some of the electrons in a black dwarf’s center and weaken its degeneracy pressure.
    — Adam Mann, Science | AAAS, 11 Aug. 2020
  • Why subject your kids to degeneracy and violence?
    — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The physicists say the behavior is an example of the concept of degeneracy.
    — Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 5 July 2022
  • This is how pop stars validate the unconscionable — from selfishness to degeneracy and crime.
    — Armond White, National Review, 15 Nov. 2023
  • Reformers seized on this as both a public-health and a moral crisis; for many Progressives, dirt itself was a sign of degeneracy.
    — Jacob Beckert, The Atlantic, 13 Nov. 2025
  • The team found that a near-infrared resolving power of at least 40 is the minimum needed to break that degeneracy.
    — Paul Sutter, Space.com, 10 June 2026
  • One night, Earnshaw goes out for his evening’s gambling and degeneracy and returns the next morning with a new resident for the household.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 11 Feb. 2026
  • The means relied on in this form of government for preventing their degeneracy are numerous and various.
    — Chris Cillizza, CNN, 11 June 2018
  • This is how men like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby get away with decades of degeneracy.
    — Jeneé Osterheldt, kansascity, 11 Oct. 2017
  • Every word out of her mouth is an indictment not merely of Trump but of her fellow lawmakers' degeneracy and opportunism.
    — Arkansas Online, 9 May 2021
  • Some lambasted the degeneracy of the modern language.
    — Big Think, 22 Apr. 2026
  • And a greater emphasis on variation and degeneracy, at all levels of analysis, as well as neural reuse, must be considered.
    — Dean Mobbs, Scientific American, 20 Sep. 2019
  • This uncertainty, called mass–distance degeneracy, meant that earlier detections could not rule out heavier objects such as brown dwarfs.
    — Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 3 Jan. 2026
  • If the mother relied on devices, media, or a nanny to provide care, her children were widely believed to be in danger of sliding into degeneracy.
    — Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 3 Mar. 2025
  • But Charles, who has been waiting to become king longer than any previous Prince of Wales, does not boast a distinguished record of degeneracy.
    — Zoë Heller, The New Yorker, 31 Mar. 2017
  • That's because unlike normal stars, white dwarfs support themselves through degeneracy pressure, the absolute refusal of electrons to share space.
    — Paul Sutter, Space.com, 18 Nov. 2025
  • However, now that the Supreme Court has given a thumbs-up to sports degeneracy, knock yourself out, America.
    — Jason Gay, WSJ, 2 July 2018
  • The name conjured high-minded ideals of representative democracy, but this was a true fascist state, complete with shock troops, slavery, and degeneracy laws.
    — Cecilia D'anastasio, Wired, 10 June 2021
  • In many of these cases, an artist’s very participation in hip-hop is painted as a moral shortcoming that suggests a propensity for real-world violence and degeneracy.
    — Briana Younger, The New Yorker, 20 Sep. 2019
  • The Pauli degeneracy pressure helps hold up the stellar remnant against gravitational collapse, preventing a black hole from forming.
    — Big Think, 13 Jan. 2025
  • The growth of violent factions involves more than a breakdown of public consensus; private moral degeneracy, technology, and other factors play a role, too.
    — Fred Bauer, National Review, 18 Aug. 2017
  • The only way to break this degeneracy would be to take accurate, independent measurements that would nail down the distance to this galaxy, irrespective of any assumptions made.
    — Ethan Siegel, Forbes, 22 June 2021
  • His presidency reminds us that the antidote to Trumpian degeneracy is not the devout straight man but the figure of integrity who can also inspire diverse people.
    — Washington Post, 18 June 2021
  • In biology, this is called degeneracy, whereby multiple systems do similar jobs to ensure survival.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 15 Nov. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'degeneracy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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