multiform

American  

[muhl-tuh-fawrm] / ˈmʌl təˌfɔrm /

adjective

1. having many different shapes, forms, or kinds.

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multiform British  

/ ˌmʌltɪˈfɔːmɪtɪ, ˈmʌltɪˌfɔːm /

adjective

1. having many forms or kinds

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Other Word Forms

• multiformity noun

Etymology

Origin of multiform

From the Latin word multiformis, dating back to 1595–1605. See multi-, -form

Explanation

If you describe something as multiform, it can exist in many forms. By its nature, a transformer toy that can double as a car and as a robot can be called multiform. Many illnesses are multiform, like cancer, because they come in all different types with all sorts of symptoms and characteristics. But good things can be multiform as well; think of the multiform Hindu deity Vishnu with ten different avatars that range from a fish to a boar to a tortoise.

Example Sentences

He interprets one multiform category, “Monster,” from an original angle — the creature’s physical characteristics.

From Washington Post • Nov. 30, 2021

Tokarczuk’s approach, like Melville’s, is encyclopedic and multiform.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 24, 2018

Related: Ben Carson has a foreign policy 'learning curve', adviser says A check-in with the University of Florida’ election analyst Michael McDonald on that other primary race and its multiform competitors.

From The Guardian • Nov. 19, 2015

Anyway, people with a penchant for remembering, re-remembering and reimagining their own lives – and I imagine that’s most of you – will see themselves reflected here, as if in a wall of multiform mirrors.

From New York Times • Jan. 31, 2012

Thus arise differentiations of structure, a transition from a uniform to a multiform state, a passage from homogeneity to heterogeneity, and this must go on cumulatively.

From Herbert Spencer by Thomson, J. Arthur (John Arthur)