Polymorphically

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Exhibiting multiple distinct forms or appearances at once
2. Characterized by the ability to take on various shapes or forms simultaneously
3. In a manner that involves having more than one distinct form or structure at the same time

Etymology: "Polymorphically" is simply "polymorphic" plus the adverbial ending "-ally," and the chain of suffixes behind that ending is longer than the word itself. The "-al" element descends from Latin "-ālis," which Old French adopted as "-el" and which entered Middle English as "-al," while the Germanic "-lik" element, meaning "body-like" or "form-like," came down through Old English "-līċe" and Middle English "-ly." English eventually fused the two into "-ally," so the adverb ends with the sum of two separate inheritances. The base word "polymorphic" is built from Greek roots: "poly," meaning many, and "morphē," meaning form or shape. Put together they describe something having many forms, a sense that later appeared in biology and chemistry as well as in computing, where one piece of code can behave differently depending on the type of data it receives.