You're probably familiar with "inherent," the adjective meaning "part of the constitution or natural character of something," but were you aware of its less common relative "inhere"? This verb looks like it could be a back-formation of "inherent" (a back-formation is a word created by removing a prefix or suffix from an existing word). But "inhere" is actually the older word. It first appeared in print in the 15th century, while "inherent" didn't show up until the late 16th century. Both are derived from the Latin verb inhaerēre ("to inhere"), which was itself formed by combining "in-" with "haerēre," a verb meaning "to adhere."
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'inhere.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
