LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
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“inheritance” in Latin

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

inheritance
hereditas (the right of heirship, and the sum of the things belonging to the inheritance): Inheritance by will, hereditas ex testamento; without a wil, hereditas ab intestato (this is called legitima, the lawful, necessary; the former testamentaria; all in the Jurisconsults): an inheritance not yet entered upon, hereditas jacens: a common inheritance, hereditas communis: a joint inheritance, communis herediras, quae ad utrumque aequaliter lege veniebat. To fix one’s heart upon an inheritance, oculos hereditati adjicere; hereditatem persequi: to receive an inheritance, hereditatem consequi or capere: I receive an inheritance, hereditas mihi venit, obvenit; hereditas ad me venit or pervenit: to receive a rich inheritance, adipisci effertissimam hereditatem (Plaut., Capt., 4, 1, 8); magna ac luculenta hereditas alicui obtingit: something comes to me by inheritance, hereditate mihi aliquid venit or obvenit: to have part in an inheritance, habere partem in hereditate; vocari in partem hereditatis: to take possession of an inheritance, hereditatem adire, cernere, adire cernereque; cretionem capere (Plin., 2, 26, 24; figuratively): to decline, refuse an inheritance, se abstinere hereditate; hereditatem omittere, repudiare (Jurisconsulti): to claim and take possession of an inheritance, hereditati se miscere or se immiscere (ib.): to obtain, or to endeavor to obtain, an inheritance surreptitiously, testamentum captare: to exclude anybody from an inheritance, aliquem excludere hereditate.

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for inheritance?
The usual Latin words for “inheritance” are hērēditās, capiō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.