polytype

From poly- + type.

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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.
   • 1825, Thomas Curson Hansard, Typographia, an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing:

     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 copperplates

3. (computing theory) In the Hindley–Milner type system, a data type containing variables bound by one or more ∀ (for-all) quantifiers.

   Coordinate term: monotype

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

• Homophones: polytypent, polytypes

polytype

1. inflection of polytyper:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative