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In object-oriented programming (OOP), inheritance is a way to establish Is-a relationships between objects. In classical inheritance where objects are defined by classes, classes can inherit attributes and behavior from pre-existing classes called base classes, superclasses, or parent classes. The resulting classes are known as derived classes, subclasses, or child classes. The relationships of classes through inheritance gives rise to a hierarchy. In prototype-based programming, objects can be defined directly from other objects without the need to define any classes, in which case this feature is called differential inheritance.