Question

What are degenerate orbitals?

Answer 1

Degenerate orbitals are orbitals which have the same energy in an atom. For example, there are three 2p orbitals, each able to accommodate two electrons. They are usually referred to as 2p(x), 2p(y) and 2p(z). All three orbitals have the same energy level.
Electron orbitals that have the same energy levels are called degenerate orbitals. When assigning electrons to orbitals in determining electron configurations, the Aufbau principle states that lower energy orbitals are filled before higher energy orbitals.