polytypismn.

1932 C. G. Stillman Samuel Butler xiii. 209 In the last three thousand years two great currents have been discernible in men's thoughts, that from polytheism to monotheism,..and that from polytypism to monotypism, which means that all animals and plants have gradually come to be seen as variations of a single substance.

1937 H. V. Routh Towards Twentieth Cent. xxiii. 351 This infinity in unity, this polytypism leading to monotypism, is our only true God.

1949 W. F. Albright Archaeol. Palestine iii. 57 The polytypism now known to be characteristic of early man is equally characteristic of dogs, whose classification as a single species is not disputed by zoologists.

1954 Systematic Zool. 3 149/1 Six multifactorial genic systems are responsible for the polytypism of the secondary sexual characteristics..of the males.

1995 J. Marks Human Biodiversity vi. 101 As long as the focus of the science of human diversity was on ‘race’, polymorphism would generally be ignored. The emphasis would be on polytypism, the study of the differences among groups.

1944 N. W. Thibault in Amer. Mineralogist 29 266 Following Baumhauer, the phenomenon is called ‘polytypism’ the adjective being ‘polytypic’ and each one of the different modifications a ‘type’.

1973 L. Suchow in P. F. Weller Solid State Chem. & Physics I. ii. 130 All compounds exhibiting polytypism are..of the layer-structure type.

1997 G. Ottonello Princ. Geochem. v. 321 The degree of freedom in the translational properties of the various sheets gives the polytypism of the phase.