Inheritance is a way that traits, characteristics, or property are passed down from one generation to the next. For example, when a parent passes on their eye color or hair type to their child, that child inherits those features. Inheritance can also refer to the transfer of money or assets when someone passes away, allowing family members to receive what their loved one left behind. In programming, inheritance is a concept where a new class can inherit properties and methods from an existing class. This allows developers to create more complex systems by building on existing code. For instance, a Dog class might inherit from a more general Animal class, gaining all its features while adding specific traits of its own.