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A substance capable of crystallizing in several distinct forms; also, any one of these forms. Cf. Allomorph.

Polymorphous.

Same as Pleomorphism.

The assumption of several structural forms without a corresponding difference in function; -- said of sponges, etc.

Having, or assuming, a variety of forms, characters, or styles; as, a polymorphous author. De Quincey.

Existence in many forms; polymorphism.

A genus of bivalve shells of which one species (D. polymorpha) is often so abundant as to be very troublesome in the fresh waters of Europe.

at forking thallus and the fruit raised on peduncled and radiated receptacles (Marchantia polymorpha). -- Ground mail, in Scotland, the fee paid for interment in a churchyard. -- Ground mass (Geol.), the fine-grained or glassy base of a rock, in which distinct crystals of its constituents are embedded. -- Ground par…

A flowerless plant (Marchantia polymorpha), having an irregularly lobed, spreading, and forking frond.

or of an essentially similar type of structure; -- opposed to dimorphic, trimorphic, and polymorphic.

One of the asexual polymorphic forms of white ants, or termites, in which the head and jaws are very large and strong. The soldiers serve to defend the nest. See Termite. Soldier beetle (Zoöl.), an American carabid beetle (Chauliognathus Americanus) whose larva feeds upon other insects, such as the plum curculio. -- S…

ning to, or characterized by, trimorphism; -- contrasted with monomorphic, dimorphic, and polymorphic.

f having three different shapes or proportions of corresponding parts; -- contrasted with polymorphism, and dimorphism. Heterogonous trimporphism (Bot.), that condition in which flowers of plants of the same species have three different lengths of stamens, short, medium, and long, the blossoms of one individual plant h…