Polyphagy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of eating numerous species or food types is common among certain organisms
2. The behavior of consuming a wide range of different foods or species ; an unusually high or uncontrollable appetite leading to overeating
3. The tendency to ingest multiple kinds of food items across various species ; eating in a way that is excessive due to an abnormally strong hunger

Etymology: Polyphagy is a plain technical compound, built in English from two Greek pieces. "Poly" comes from Ancient Greek "polús," meaning "many," and "-phagy" comes from "phagein," meaning "to eat," which appears in forms like "éphagon" in classical Greek. Put together, the sense is "eating many [things]," and the word is a modern scientific formation rather than something Greek speakers used. The same building blocks show up in other English terms. Words ending in "-phagous" or "-phagy" describe what an animal or person eats: a "monophagous" animal feeds on only one kind of food, while a "polyphagous" one takes many. Biologists rely on these forms to classify feeding habits, especially among insects that eat a wide range of plants.