How to Use hereditary in a Sentence

hereditary

adjective
  • He suffers from a rare hereditary condition.
  • Win or lose — hunger is hereditary in Norman.
    — Caroline Price, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
  • The best parts of Barry feel hereditary.
    — Joel Lorenzi, New York Times, 7 May 2026
  • Japan is believed to have the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world.
    — Time, 22 Oct. 2019
  • Becky’s son also became ill with a blood disease, one that could have been hereditary.
    — Fiona Tapp, SELF, 18 Jan. 2019
  • Japan is ruled by the longest-running hereditary dynasty in the world.
    — Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2021
  • Just 3% to 5% of these cancers are caused by hereditary factors.
    — Markham Heid, Time, 13 Dec. 2022
  • Many risk factors for heart attacks are hereditary, meaning your parents can pass them to you.
    — Angela Ryan Lee, Health, 1 Sep. 2024
  • Welcome to the world of by-elections for hereditary peers in the House of Lords.
    — The Economist, 21 June 2018
  • Though the hereditary aspect is out of our control, many of the lifestyle aspects aren’t.
    — Celia Shatzman, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024
  • For that matter, the same is true in societies with hereditary class systems.
    — Judith Martin, Mercury News, 9 June 2026
  • The main source of resistance to the project is a number of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.
    — Kevin Orland, Bloomberg.com, 9 May 2020
  • Heinrich may claim the hereditary title, but the House of Reuss is less than pleased with him.
    — Patrick Smith, NBC News, 8 Dec. 2022
  • Keep in mind, only 5% to 10% of breast cancers are hereditary.
    — Erica Sloan, SELF, 1 Oct. 2025
  • The illness is hereditary and may not emerge until a patient’s 40s.
    — Elizabeth Anne Brown, New York Times, 15 May 2023
  • Sullivan, who serves as hereditary chief for the O'Sullivan clan.
    — Glenn Garner, PEOPLE.com, 24 July 2022
  • Lowry explained that the excess skin around the neck can often be hereditary and not related to a person's weight.
    — Starr Bowenbank, People.com, 13 Aug. 2025
  • Only 15% of cases are hereditary; the causes of the rest are unknown.
    — Andy Kessler, WSJ, 29 Jan. 2023
  • But words are open to interpretation, and while the Crown may be hereditary, a monarch’s sense of duty is not.
    — Holly Thomas, CNN, 13 Sep. 2022
  • In fact, hereditary, and all that the word encompasses within the film, extends to Aster as well.
    — Richard Newby, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 June 2018
  • The position is not hereditary, but Prince Charles is expected to get the nod.
    — Erin Hill, PEOPLE.com, 19 Apr. 2018
  • The boy is one of six children with a type of hereditary deafness who are part of a gene therapy trial in China.
    — Emily Mullin, WIRED, 24 Jan. 2024
  • In the eternal debate of whether or not talent is hereditary, the Matisse family makes a good case.
    — Olivia Hosken, Town & Country, 19 Apr. 2022
  • So the king of Prussia, a king of Bavaria, hereditary princes in an area of east-central Germany.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2022
  • The blood in the title is a hereditary nod to the protagonist’s father, whose own police career came to a troubling end.
    — John Wilkens, sandiegouniontribune.com, 17 Sep. 2017
  • The Chrysanthemum Throne is the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world.
    — CNN, 15 Dec. 2021
  • Parsi priesthood is hereditary, meaning all the boys here have been born into priestly families.
    — Rhea Mogul, CNN Money, 21 June 2026
  • In this third decade of the twenty-first century, the idea of a hereditary monarch serving as the head of a large democratic state seems like an anachronism.
    — John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2022
  • Analysts have raised the prospect of a palace coup in Qatar, a hereditary monarchy with a history of such changes in leadership.
    — Washington Post, 8 June 2017
  • There are two types of ATTR-CM, hereditary and wild-type.
    — Patty Weasler, Verywell Health, 5 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hereditary.' 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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