polymorphic

Adjective

1. Relating to polymorphism (any sense), able to have several shapes or forms.
   • 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...
   • 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...
2. Having 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 design:
   • 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...
3. Relating 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...