heritage - Definition | Dictionary definition of heritage

Definition of heritage

practices that are handed down from the past by tradition

"a heritage of freedom"

any attribute or immaterial possession that is inherited from ancestors

"the world's heritage of knowledge"

Types:: show 6 types...; hide 6 types...; birthright
personal characteristics that are inherited at birth; background
a person's social heritage: previous experience or training; birthright
a right or privilege that you are entitled to at birth; upbringing
properties acquired during a person's formative years; breeding, education, training
the result of good upbringing (especially knowledge of correct social behavior); nurture, raising, rearing
the properties acquired as a consequence of the way you were treated as a child

Type of:: attribute
an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity

that which is inherited; a title or property or estate that passes by law to the heir on the death of the owner

Types:: show 7 types...; hide 7 types...; primogeniture
right of inheritance belongs exclusively to the eldest son; borough English
a former English custom by which the youngest son inherited land to the exclusion of his older brothers; accretion
(law) an increase in a beneficiary's share in an estate (as when a co-beneficiary dies or fails to meet some condition or rejects the inheritance); bequest, legacy
(law) a gift of personal property by will; birthright, patrimony
an inheritance coming by right of birth (especially by primogeniture); devise
(law) a gift of real property by will; heirloom
something that has been in a family for generations

Type of:: transferred possession, transferred property
a possession whose ownership changes or lapses

hereditary succession to a title or an office or property

Type of:: acquisition
the act of contracting or assuming or acquiring possession of something