Something inherent is built into the very nature of a thing and cannot be separated from it. The inherent risk in the procedure, an inherent contradiction, inherent dignity.
The test is whether removing it would leave the thing intact: an inherent property cannot be removed. It takes in — inherent in the system — and that preposition is fixed. It is a formal word and belongs to legal, academic and policy writing. The adverb inherently is even commoner and often does the work of a hedge: inherently risky means risky by nature rather than by anybody's fault. Compare intrinsic, which is nearly identical, and innate, which is used of people and living things.
1adjectiveinherentExisting as a permanent part of something's nature.
“There is an inherent risk in any operation.”
inherent is a quality of belonging by nature.
Also accepted in games: intrinsic
Latin inhaerere meant to stick in — in- plus haerere, to cling, the same verb behind adhere, cohere and hesitate. An inherent quality clings to the thing so tightly that the two cannot be pulled apart.
Latin
inhaerēns
English, today
inherent
Built from
Borrowed from Latin inhaerēns. From Latin inhaerentem, accusative singular of inhaerēns, present active participle of inhaereō (“to be closely connected with; to adhere to”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA