polychromatic

From poly- + chromatic.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpɑlikɹəˈmætɪk/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpɒlikɹəʊˈmætɪk/
• Hyphenation: pol‧y‧chro‧mat‧ic

polychromatic (not comparable)

1. Showing a variety, or a change, of colours; having many colours.

   Synonym: see at polychrome

   Coordinate term: see at polychrome

   • 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 76:

     With our water goggles adjusted we gazed at the fishes displaying their polychromatic scales to the sea world, as, with true Puka-Pukan languor, they finned from coral to coral.

   • 1910, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “(please specify the story)”, in Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four Million, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC:

     As I rounded the corner nearest my hotel the Afrite coachman of the polychromatic, nonpareil coat seized me, swung open the dungeony door of his peripatetic sarcophagus, flirted his feather duster and began his ritual: […]

2. (physics, of electromagnetic radiation) Composed of more than one wavelength.

• (having many colours): motley, multicolored, polyhued; see also Thesaurus:multicolored

• monochromatic

• “polychromatic”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.