1
as in weak
having lost forcefulness, courage, or spirit
a degenerate society in which people had no sense of being citizens, only consumers
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2
as in corrupt
having or showing lowered moral character or standards
a movie about a gang of degenerate drug dealers
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as in pervert
a person who has sunk below the normal moral standard
a degenerate who is uninterested in anything but his own gratification
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as in to deteriorate
to become worse or of less value
over the years the community-minded organization degenerated into a club for loafers
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of degenerate
Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2024
Ammon did appear tempted to talk the walk in Portland, to become the Mormon cowboy philosopher king wandering a degenerate realm of an ailing Republic, but by now time was in extremely short supply.
—Matt Thompson, SPIN, 5 Nov. 2024
Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2025
Those who hold advanced degrees in mathematics and analytics, or your favorite degenerate gambler, know any piece of datum is only reliant on the trove of data that occurred previously.
—Bill Speros, Boston Herald, 7 May 2025
John McCoy, Outdoor Life, 12 Nov. 2025
Once Gacy is caught, the media runs with the details — all those bodies crammed in that crawlspace, some of them buried in trenches Gacy made his employees dig out — and paints his victims as runaways or degenerates who put themselves in danger.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for degenerate
Adjective
There was alarm at the prospect of hundreds of thousands of soldiers returning to the U.S. with such degenerate experience under their belts, and presumably spreading these habits among hitherto innocent American wives.
—Noun
Novak: The fact that this group of degenerates, these bloodsucking, mass-murdering vampires and wannabe vampires, [could be] so lovable is amazing.
—Verb
The bear bowled Propst over backward, and the encounter degenerated into lopsided hand-to-fang combat.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for degenerate
Adjective
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New orders contracted for a fourth month and export bookings remained weak, based on the ISM data.—
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Getting too little of either can lead to weak, brittle bones, and too much can also cause problems (like kidney stones or nausea).—
Adjective
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Which makes Shelley Joseph today’s poster gal for the corrupt double standards in the Massachusetts legal system.—
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Trump is running the most brazenly corrupt administration in modern history.—
Noun
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Also, what many now interpret as Kubrick’s exposé of elite perverts was, in fact, mostly Schnitzler’s doing.—
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Tarpley Hitt: Postwar miscreants, several perverts (value-neutral), corporate consolidation, lawsuits, copyright law, knockoffs/fakes, America, lying, dolls.—
Verb
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The price of gold, long understood to be the investor’s refuge against a deteriorating dollar, is sounding an alarm.—
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When those conditions are absent, performance deteriorates quickly.—
Adjective
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Of the 20 dead cats, eight were too decayed for a necropsy exam, which determines the cause of death of a dead animal and any associated diseases or injuries.—
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The breakthrough came when researchers focused on coelomic fluid, the internal liquid surrounding the sea stars’ organs, rather than tissue from decayed specimens.—
Adjective
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Two meetings will be hosted this month for public input on a proposal to restore a degraded estuary in South Laguna at Aliso Creek.—
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Loyola Marymount University professor Demian Willette uses it to better understand how micro-forests take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, contribute to local biodiversity and help restore degraded land.—
Verb
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The trail stays level early on and crosses the road a couple of times before descending through a grove of Arizona cypress to a shallow drainage.—
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The Senate’s negotiations on reopening the government are descending into another impasse.—
Adjective
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Inside, Kathryn Newton mingled with Chace Crawford near a decadent charcuterie spread and a piano mysteriously strewn with bread rolls and roses.—
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Coming in a decadent chocolate-brown shade, this best-selling top will transcend the season to get ample wear year-round.—
Cite this Entry
“Degenerate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/degenerate. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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