degeneration
noun
de·gen·er·a·tion
di-ˌje-nə-ˈrā-shən
ˌdē-
1
: degenerate (see degenerate entry 1) condition
2
: a lowering of effective power, vitality, or essential quality to an enfeebled and worsened kind or state
the country's degeneration into chaos
… enacts the degeneration of politics into televisual entertainment …—Linda Holt
3
: intellectual, moral, or artistic decline
Many of her stories show the degeneration of a principled person into a lethal one …—Susannah Clapp
… argue that the tradition has radically devolved, and that books like "The Kiss," by Kathryn Harrison, represent the degeneration of a once ennobled form.—Deborah E. McDowell
4
biology
a
: progressive deterioration of physical characters from a level representing the norm of earlier generations or forms
b
: deterioration of a tissue or an organ in which its function is diminished or its structure is impaired
a degeneration of cartilage
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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