inhere

English

Alternative forms

• inhære (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin inhaerēre, present active infinitive of inhaereō (“stick in, stick to, inhere to”), from in (“in”) + haereō (“stick”); see hesitate. Compare adhere, cohere.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈhɪə/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

inhere (third-person singular simple present inheres, present participle inhering, simple past and past participle inhered)

1. (uncommon) To be inherent; to be an essential or intrinsic part of; to be fixed or permanently incorporated with something.
   • 1932, T. S. Eliot, “Philip Massinger”, in Essays on Elizabethan Drama, USA: Harcourt Brace & World, Inc., published 1960, page 151:

     He [Massinger] inherits the traditions of conduct, female chastity, hymeneal sanctity, the fashion of honour, without either criticizing or informing them from his own experience. In the earlier drama these conventions are merely a framework, or an alloy necessary for working the metal; the metal itself consisted of unique emotions resulting inevitably from the circumstances, resulting or inhering as inevitably as the properties of a chemical compound.

   • 2001, Will Self, Feeding Frenzy:

     We had already been claimed by the split infinitives of Star Trek, were already preparing to boldly go into a world where ethics, so far from inhering in the very structure of the cosmos, was a matter of personal taste […] .

   • 5 January 2009, John Kraemer, Larry Gostin, The Guardian:

     Sovereignty should inhere in the people and not the government, so governments forfeit sovereignty when they commit crimes against humanity.

Related terms

• adhere
• cohere
• inherent
• inherence
• inherency

Translations

Further reading

• “inhere”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “inhere”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Henrie, herein, rheine