How to Use heritability in a Sentence

heritability

noun
  • In other words, the missing heritability isn't very missing at all.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 19 Jan. 2011
  • But with enough dogs, heritability is a good measure of what’s inherited.
    — New York Times, 28 Apr. 2022
  • The resulting estimates of heritability are only about a third of those based on twin studies.
    — Eric Turkheimer, The Atlantic, 13 Oct. 2025
  • In people, twin studies are the gold standard for measuring heritability [of traits].
    — Sharon Begley, STAT, 20 Dec. 2019
  • According to Werge, the heritability estimate is as high as 80% – the same as height.
    — Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, 11 Nov. 2022
  • The data can help determine the heritability level of many common diseases.
    — Lauren Sigfusson, Discover Magazine, 17 May 2018
  • The idea that intelligence is highly malleable also jars with research on its heritability.
    — The Economist, 22 Mar. 2018
  • That’s on par with the heritability of cognitive traits like IQ in people, MacLean says.
    — David Grimm, Science | AAAS, 17 Mar. 2021
  • Since then, studies have shown autism runs in families and have put its heritability at around 80 percent, or about as heritable as height or eye color.
    — Nicholette Zeliadt, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2020
  • Given its high heritability, IASC over human height is likely.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 9 Aug. 2012
  • Recent work with horses also suggests that measuring the heritability of certain metabolic traits could be used to screen for metabolic syndrome in the future.
    — Jane Manfredi, Fortune Well, 25 July 2023
  • Though their heritability varies, the traits, if already present in the DNA, are more likely to be expressed if the person suffers abuse in their earliest years.
    — Ashley Lee, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2020
  • Studies have also shown that it's commonly associated with genetics and has a high heritability.
    — Health.com, 27 Oct. 2021
  • When investigating whether a trait is genetic, scientists look at its heritability.
    — Madeleine Streets, SELF, 13 June 2022
  • The mystery of missing heritability dates back to the late-2000s, when researchers began to use new tools to scan human genomes for common markers linked to diseases and traits.
    — Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | AAAS, 3 Nov. 2020
  • The results suggest while use of antidepressants may increase a child's risk of psychiatric disease, heritability could also play a major role, according to study authors.
    — Elizabeth Narins, Cosmopolitan, 11 Sep. 2017
  • One study showed that heritability of eating disorders in girls was 0 percent before puberty, but more than 50 percent afterward.
    — Kate Willsky, Washington Post, 26 July 2022
  • All that being said, what are the specific quantitative heritability estimates?
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 27 June 2011
  • Equation 1 summarizes a vast amount of literature on subjective well-being, starting with the question of the heritability of happiness.
    — Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic, 9 Apr. 2020
  • Most subsequent studies found heritability to be somewhere in the 20 to 25 percent range, and 25 percent is now widely accepted.
    — Cody Cottier, Scientific American, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Scientists have seen roughly that level of lifespan heritability with other species, as well as with other human traits, such as psychological factors like introversion.
    — Andrew Joseph, STAT, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Researchers in Sweden and Minnesota had compared anorexia rates in identical and fraternal twins, a common approach to tease out heritability of complex traits and diseases.
    — Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, Science | AAAS, 9 Apr. 2020
  • Your chronotype, according to these findings, is a complex polygenic trait with a heritability estimated at around 50%, shaped by hundreds of small genetic effects acting in concert.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 18 May 2026
  • But for cystic fibrosis, another such condition, heritability was only 1%.
    — Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | AAAS, 17 May 2018
  • That high level of assortative mating was massively inflating the heritability estimate.
    — Cathleen O'Grady, Ars Technica, 8 Nov. 2018
  • In recent years, researchers have explored the heritability of personality, including outliers like altruism and bashfulness.
    — Mark Barna, Discover Magazine, 31 July 2018
  • McLean says dog breeds may be an ideal way to study the heritability of cognitive traits because breeds—all part of the same species—represent close genetic relatives with an incredibly diverse range of appearances and behaviors.
    — Viviane Callier, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 July 2020
  • For example, the study found that parents who have neurodevelopmental disorders — which have strong heritability — are also more likely to use pain medications, like acetaminophen, during pregnancy.
    — Mira Cheng, CNN, 9 Apr. 2024
  • Though there haven’t been many significant scientific breakthroughs regarding an understanding of the disease, researchers have confirmed that genetics and heritability play a significant role.
    — Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, 11 Nov. 2022
  • The deviation from this expectation would have introduced errors into estimates of heritability and possibly masked the understanding of the genetic architecture of a trait.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 3 Feb. 2011

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