polymorphic
/ˌpɑliˈmɔɹfɪk/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.43 in modern English
25
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Relating to a compound that can crystallize into two or more distinct forms (e.g. carbon, which can crystalize into coal, graphite, diamond, etc.)
adj
Being or relating to polymorphic content; developed for multiple formats from the start, instead of being adapted later.
Example Sentences
- "I refer to those genera which have sometimes been called "protean" or "polymorphic," in which the species present an inordinate amount of variation; and hardly two naturalists can agree which forms to rank as species and which as varieties."
- "1897, Grant Allen, An African Millionaire Dr. Beddersley came -- a dapper little man, with pent-house eyebrows, and keen, small eyes, whom I suspected at sight of being Colonel Clay himself in another of his clever polymorphic embodiments."
- "Polymorphic redefinition in C++ is achieved by the use of virtual functions."
- "A polymorphic call looks like a procedural call, but where a procedural call has only one possible target subroutine, a polymorphic call can result in the execution of one of several different subroutines."
- "The fact that polymorphic equilibrium is not a dynamic equilibrium is significant with respect to the random distribution of velocity of temperature agitation among the molecules."
Etymology
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌpɑliˈmɔɹfɪk/