Degeneration /(?)/

De·gen·er·a·tion

Degeneration

n.
  1. The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration.
    Our degeneration and apostasy.
    — Bates.
  2. 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; as, fatty degeneration of the liver. (Physiol.)
  3. A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type. (Biol.)
  4. The thing degenerated. [R.]
    Cockle, aracus, . . . and other degenerations.

Phrases & Compounds
Amyloid degeneration
See under Amyloid, Caseous, etc.