Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having several variant forms, especially subspecies or varieties.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as polytypical.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective taxonomy having several different taxa of the next lower rank, especially having several subspecies
  • adjective exhibiting polytypism

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[poly– + typ(e) + –ic.]

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Examples

  • So right now things are undecided, and Chelydra may or may not turn out to be polytypic.

    Archive 2006-02-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Thirty-one bird species are polytypic on the island.

    Mindanao-Eastern Visayas rain forests 2007

  • Thirty-one bird species are polytypic on the island.

    Mindanao montane rain forests 2007

  • One of your remarks I do not see the bearing of under your point of view -- namely, that in monotypic genera "the variation and variability" are "much more frequently noticed" than in polytypic genera.

    More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1 Charles Darwin 1845

  • A new polytypic species of the genus Uromastyx Merrem 1820 (Reptilia: Squamata: Agamidae: Leiolepidinae) from southwestern Arabia - Thomas M. Wilms and Andreas Schmitz

    Archive 2007-01-01 2007

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