Copolymers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of polymer that consists of two or more different monomer units chemically bonded together in a chain
2. Materials formed by the polymerization of two or more distinct monomers, resulting in a substance with unique properties
3. Polymers made from a mixture of different building blocks, leading to variations in characteristics compared to homopolymers

Etymology: Copolymers are named by stacking prefixes onto an older chemical term. "Polymer" came into English from Ancient Greek "polymeres," built from "polys" (many) and "meros" (part), so a polymer is a substance made of many repeated parts. The "co-" prefix, from Latin "con-" meaning "together" or "with," was attached to indicate that the chain contains two or more different kinds of building block rather than one repeating unit. The word is essentially a modern technical coinage, formed from existing classical parts rather than inherited from ancient usage. Ancient Greeks had no notion of synthetic polymer chemistry, so the term reflects the later scientific vocabulary built from Greek and Latin roots.

Synonyms: blends, composites, mixtures, alloys, derivatives