Meanings
- not comparableRelating to polymorphism (any sense), able to have several shapes or forms.
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.
1 more example
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.
1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Variation under Nature”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 46Synonyms: multiform
- not comparablecomputingHaving or relating to the ability to take multiple data types for a single parameter.
Polymorphic redefinition in C++ is achieved by the use of virtual functions.
1996, Rod Ellis, Data abstraction and program design1 more example
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.
2012, Karel Driesen, Efficient Polymorphic Calls, page 1 - not comparablechemistryRelating to a compound that can crystallize into two or more distinct forms (e.g. carbon, which can crystalize into coal, graphite, diamond, etc.)
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.
1916, Percy Williams Bridgman, The Velocity of Polymorphic Changes Between Solids, page 84 - not comparablebusinessBeing or relating to polymorphic content; developed for multiple formats from the start, instead of being adapted later.
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveRelating to polymorphism (any sense), able to have several shapes or forms.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectiverelating to the crystallization of a compound in two or more different forms
adjectiverelating to the occurrence of more than one kind of individual (independent of sexual differences) in an interbreeding population
adjectivehaving or occurring in several distinct forms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Catalan polimorf, polimòrfic
- polimorfrelating to polymorphism
- polimòrficrelating to polymorphism
Chinese Mandarin 多形型
- 多形型 (duō xíng xíng)relating to polymorphism
Finnish monimuotoinen
- monimuotoinenrelating to polymorphism
French polymorphique
- polymorphiquerelating to polymorphism
German polymorphisch
- polymorphischrelating to polymorphism
Icelandic fjölbreytinn, fjölmóta
- fjölbreytinnrelating to polymorphism
- fjölmótarelating to polymorphism
Irish ilchruthach, polamorfach
- ilchruthachrelating to polymorphism
- polamorfachrelating to polymorphism
Polish polimorficzny
- polimorficznyrelating to polymorphism
Portuguese polimórfico
- polimórficorelating to polymorphism
Spanish polimorfo, polimórfico
- polimorforelating to polymorphism
- polimórficorelating to polymorphism
Turkish çok biçimli
- çok biçimlirelating to polymorphism
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with polymorphic
Cite this entry
polymorphic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polymorphic
“polymorphic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polymorphic. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “polymorphic,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polymorphic.
Source: polymorphic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.