Meanings
adjectivepolyphenic (not comparable)
- not comparablebiologyHaving multiple phenotypes that can arise as a result of differing environmental conditions.
Both types of threshold mechanism have been shown to couple horn growth with nutrition in scarab beetles and are considered facultative (polyphenic) regulatory processes, and preliminary evidence suggested that they might sometimes both be present in the same species.
2009 February 6, J. Mark Rowland, Douglas J. Emlen, “Two Thresholds, Three Male Forms Result in Facultative Male Trimorphism in Beetles”, in Science, volume 323, number 5915, →DOI, pages 773–776
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APA
polyphenic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polyphenic
MLA
“polyphenic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polyphenic. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “polyphenic,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polyphenic.
Source: polyphenic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.