inheritance (redirected from dominant inheritance)

inheritance, in law

inheritance, in law: see heir.

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inheritance, in biology

inheritance, in biology: see heredity.

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inheritance

Devolution of property on an heir or heirs upon the death of its owner. In civil law jurisdictions it is called succession. The concept depends on a common acceptance of the notion of private ownership of goods and property. Under some systems, land is considered communal property and rights to it are redistributed, rather than bequeathed, on the death of a community member. In many countries, a minimum portion of the decedent's estate must be assigned to the surviving spouse and often to the progeny as well. Intestacy laws, which govern the inheritance of estates whose distribution is not directed by a will, universally view kinship between the decedent and the beneficiary as a primary consideration. Inheritance usually entails payment of an inheritance tax. See also inheritance tax; intestate succession; probate.

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inheritance

In object technology, the ability of one class of objects to inherit properties from a higher class.

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inheritance

1. Law

a. hereditary succession to an estate, title, etc.

b. the right of an heir to succeed to property on the death of an ancestor

c. something that may legally be transmitted to an heir

2. the derivation of characteristics of one generation from an earlier one by heredity

3. Obsolete hereditary rights

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inheritance [in′her·əd·əns]

(computer science)

A feature of object-oriented programming that allows a new class to be defined simply by stating how it differs from an existing class.

(genetics)

The acquisition of characteristics by transmission of particular alleles from ancestor to descendant.

The sum total of characteristics dependent upon the constitution of the sperm-fertilized ovum.

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(programming, object-oriented)

inheritance - In object-oriented programming, the ability to derive new classes from existing classes. A derived class (or "subclass") inherits the instance variables and methods of the "base class" (or "superclass"), and may add new instance variables and methods. New methods may be defined with the same names as those in the base class, in which case they override the original one. For example, bytes might belong to the class of integers for which an add method might be defined. The byte class would inherit the add method from the integer class. See also Liskov substitution principle, multiple inheritance.