plural of heritability; the quality or extent to which something can be inherited or passed genetically from parents to offspring.
Middle English 'heritable' + modern suffix '-ability'. A scientific term that emerged with genetics to measure the proportion of variation in a trait due to genetic differences.
Modern geneticists use 'heritability' to measure what percentage of something like height or intelligence comes from your genes versus your environment—but it's trickier than it sounds because environment and genes interact!
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