Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Polymorphous \Pol`y*mor"phous\, a.
Having, or assuming, a variety of forms, characters, or styles; as, a polymorphous author.
--De Quincey.(Biol.) Having, or occurring in, several distinct forms; -- opposed to monomorphic.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1785, from Greek polymorphos "multiform, of many forms, manifold," from poly- "many" (see poly-) + morphe "shape, form" (see Morpheus). Related: Polymorphic; polymorphously; polymorphousness.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Having, or assuming, a variety of forms, characters, or styles; as, a polymorphous author. 2 (context biology English) Having, or occurring in, several distinct forms; -- opposed to monomorphic. 3 (context chemistry English) Crystallizing in two or more different forms; polymorphic
WordNet
adj. relating to the crystallization of a compound in two or more different forms; "polymorphous crystallization" [syn: polymorphic]
relating to the occurrence of more than one kind of individual (independent of sexual differences) in an interbreeding population; "a polymorphic species" [syn: polymorphic]
having or occurring in several distinct forms; "man is both polymorpphic and polytypic"; "a polymorphous god" [syn: polymorphic]
Usage examples of "polymorphous".
Thus, his synergetic message is in perfect tune with the antispecialization, comprehensivist, polymorphous style of the counterculture.
The stately, unmodulated modes had, over the centuries, given way, first to the strict and predictable division of major and minor, and then to the polymorphous fire of chromatics, the black flame of harmonic minor and diminished scales.