polymorphism

1. (biology) The coexistence, in the same locality, of two or more distinct forms independent of sex, not connected by intermediate gradations, but produced from common parents.countableuncountable

2. (object-oriented programming) A feature pertaining to the dynamic treatment of data elements based on their type, allowing for a method to have several definitions.countableuncountable

3. (mathematics, type theory) The property of certain typed formal systems of allowing for the use of type variables and binders/quantifiers over those type variables; likewise, the property of certain expressions (within such typed formal systems) of making use of at least one such typed variable.countableuncountable

4. (crystallography) The ability of a solid material to exist in more than one form or crystal structure; pleomorphism.countableuncountable

5. (genetics) The regular existence of two or more different genotypes within a given species or population; also, variability of amino acid sequences within a gene's protein.Examples: "Since 1990 they have found an entirely new role: they promise understanding of how and why our genes are all so different. They hold the key to human polymorphism."; "Some polymorphisms can be quite stable – so stable that they span the change from an ancestral to a descendant species."countableuncountable