Degeneracy

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Degeneracy (for the quality; degeneration for the process; adj. and v. degenerate), from the Latin de-generare "to depart from its kind or genus, to fall from its proper or ancestral quality" can refer to:

• In science and mathematics:
  • Degeneracy (mathematics), a limiting case in which a class of object changes its nature so as to belong to another, usually simpler, class
  • In biology, the ability of elements that are structurally different to perform the same function or yield the same output, a well known characteristic of the genetic code and immune systems. 1
  • In graph theory, the degeneracy of a graph, a graph metric;
  • Degenerate matter, a very highly compressed phase of matter where all or some of the electron orbits have collapsed from pressure;
  • Degenerate energy levels, different arrangements of a physical system which have the same energy;
• Medical degeneration:
  • Degenerative disease, disease which causes deterioration over time;
• Degeneration in social ideology:
  • Degenerate art, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art, declaring it "un-German" or Jewish Bolshevist in nature.

[edit] See also

• Biological devolution
• Deterioration
• Regeneration – antonym

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