degeneration

1. (uncountable, countable) The process or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse.Examples: "The modern cry of "more liberty and less creed" is a degeneration from a vertebrate to a jellyfish."; "Hence, regional soil degenerations and podsolization was probably an important factor contributing to the retrogressive change in the forest composition at the end of the mesocratic phase.."; "Emmanuel Macron sounded like a man in grief. Not angry, not defiant, just a little triste. Europe, he lamented, was suffering a “degeneration of democracy”."Synonyms: decadence, decline, degradation, debasement, degeneracy, deteriorationcountableuncountableusually

2. (uncountable) That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure.Examples: "fatty degeneration of the liver"uncountableusually

3. (uncountable) Gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type.uncountableusually

4. (countable) A thing that has degenerated.Examples: "cockle, aracus, […] and other degenerations"countableusually