Word.ws English Dictionary

polytype

polytype noun: any of the types involved in polytypism.

Noun

polytype (plural polytypes)

  1. Any of the types involved in polytypism.
    • Orthochrysotile is a polytype of chrysotile.
  2. A cast, or facsimile copy, of an engraved block, matter in type, etc.
    • Towards the end of the eighteenth century , Professor Wilson of Glasgow , being engaged in a series of experiments for making etchings upon glass with fluoric acid for the purposes of art , thought it possible to make polytypes of glass from engraved copperplates1825, Thomas Curson Hansard, Typographia, an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing
  3. In the Hindley–Milner type system, a data type containing variables bound by one or more ∀ (for-all) quantifiers.

Verb

polytype (third-person singular simple present polytypes, present participle polytyping, simple past and past participle polytyped)

  1. (transitive) To produce a polytype of.
    • to polytype an engraving

Forms of polytype

Noun
pluralpolytypes
Verb
third-person singular presentpolytypes
present participlepolytyping
past participlepolytyped
pastpolytyped

Origin of polytype

From poly- + type.

Questions about polytype

What does polytype mean?
Polytype means any of the types involved in polytypism.
What part of speech is polytype?
Polytype can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of polytype?
The plural of polytype is polytypes.

Words near polytype in the dictionary

  1. polytungstic acid
  2. polytungstic acids
  3. polytunnel
  4. polytunnels
  5. polytypage
  6. polytype
  7. polytyped
  8. polytypes
  9. polytypic
  10. polytypical
  11. polytyping

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: polytype (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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