polytomy

American  

[puh-lit-uh-mee] / pəˈlɪt ə mi /

noun

• polytomies
  plural

1. the act or process of dividing into more than three parts.

2. the state or condition of being so divided.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• polytomous
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• polytomies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of polytomy

First recorded in 1860–65; poly- + -tomy

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

polytomy polytomies

A branch with more than two lineages is a polytomy.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

It is important to note that although sister taxa and polytomy do share an ancestor, it does not mean that the groups of organisms split or evolved from each other.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

A branch with more than two lineages is called a polytomy and serves to illustrate where scientists have not definitively determined all of the relationships.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

The next branch forks at one point into four different lineages, an example of polytomy.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

First, BEAST2 always produces a fully resolved binary topology without polytomies.

From Nature ● May 8, 2018

Internal nodes with < 70% bootstrap support are shown as polytomies.

From Nature ● May 8, 2018

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