POLYMORPHISM
- the circumstance in which two minerals with different crystalline structures have identical chemical compositions, eg diamond and graphite [n]
- The occurrence of something in several different forms, in particular
- The occurrence of different forms among the members of a population or colony, or in the life cycle of an individual organism
- The presence of genetic variation within a population, upon which natural selection can operate
- The occurrence of a number of alternative forms within a section of a nucleic acid or protein molecule
- A feature of a programming language that allows routines to use variables of different types at different times