Word.ws English Dictionary

ad-hoc polymorphism

ad-hoc polymorphism noun: a kind of polymorphism where polymorphic functions can be applied to arguments of different types, as they can denote a number of distinct and potentially heterogeneous implementations depending on the types of argument to which they are applied.

Noun

ad-hoc polymorphism (usually uncountable, plural ad-hoc polymorphisms)

  1. (usually) A kind of polymorphism where polymorphic functions can be applied to arguments of different types, as they can denote a number of distinct and potentially heterogeneous implementations depending on the types of argument to which they are applied.

Forms of ad-hoc polymorphism

pluralad-hoc polymorphisms

Origin of ad-hoc polymorphism

Coined by British computer scientist Christopher Strachey in 1967.

Questions about ad-hoc polymorphism

What does ad-hoc polymorphism mean?
Ad-hoc polymorphism means a kind of polymorphism where polymorphic functions can be applied to arguments of different types, as they can denote a number of distinct and potentially heterogeneous implementations depending on the types of argument to which they are applied.
What part of speech is ad-hoc polymorphism?
Ad-hoc polymorphism is a noun.
What is the plural of ad-hoc polymorphism?
The plural of ad-hoc polymorphism is ad-hoc polymorphisms.

Words near ad-hoc polymorphism in the dictionary

  1. AD&Ds
  2. ad-
  3. ad-Dammam
  4. ad-free
  5. ad-hoc
  6. ad-hoc polymorphism
  7. ad-hoc polymorphisms
  8. ad-hocism
  9. ad-hocisms
  10. ad-hockeries
  11. ad-hockery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ad-hoc polymorphism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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