heteroclitic

comparative more heteroclitic · superlative most heteroclitic

1. human sciencesIrregular in inflection.
2. Indo European studiesSignifying a nominal stem which alternates between more than one form when declined for grammatical case, particularly in the suffix (such as between *-r̥- in the strong stem and *-n̥- in the weak stem).

   The Proto-Indo-European term *wódr̥ (“water”) is typical of nouns with heteroclitic stems: the strong stem *wódr̥- occurs in the direct cases while the weak stem *wédn̥- is found instead in the oblique cases, hence the contrast between nominative *wódr̥ and genitive *wédn̥s.

3. biologyPertaining to antibodies that react to a wide variety of antigens.

   […] a heteroclitic response was never observed after the immunization with the deamidated peptide […]

   2011, Eric J. Toone, Advances in Enzymology and Related Areas of Molecular Biology, page 300

plural heteroclitics

1. A heteroclitic noun.