Polymorphism

Quick meaning: Polymorphism is a noun meaning The ability to assume different forms or shapes.

Meaning

The ability to assume different forms or shapes.

More Meanings

1. (crystallography) The ability of a solid material to exist in more than one form or crystal structure; pleomorphism.
2. (biology) The coexistence, in the same locality, of two or more distinct forms independent of sex, not connected by intermediate gradations, but produced from common parents.
3. (object-oriented programming) A feature pertaining to the dynamic treatment of data elements based on their type, allowing for a method to have several definitions.
4. (genetics) The regular existence of two or more different genotypes within a given species or population; also, variability of amino acid sequences within a gene's protein.
5. (mathematics, type theory) The property of certain typed formal systems of allowing for the use of type variables and binders/quantifiers over those type variables; likewise, the property of certain expressions (within such typed formal systems) of making use of at least one such typed variable.

Example Sentences

Some polymorphisms can be quite stable – so stable that they span the change from an ancestral to a descendant species.

Since 1990 they have found an entirely new role: they promise understanding of how and why our genes are all so different. They hold the key to human polymorphism.

Word Forms

• polymorphisms

Synonyms for polymorphism

Depending on context, synonyms include pleomorphism.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include pleomorphism, fragment, diversity, polytypism, variability, heterogeneity.

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