Other forms: polymers
A polymer is a very long molecule built from repeating units. A synthetic polymer, polymer chemistry, polymer banknotes.
Almost all plastics are polymers, and so are cellulose, DNA and protein — the repeating-unit design is one nature reached long before we did. Chain length is much of what decides a plastic's properties. Note polymer banknotes, which Britain adopted from 2016 and which last far longer than paper. Note also that the Greek means many parts.
1nounpolymerA very long molecule built from repeating units.
“Nylon is a polymer that was first used to make toothbrushes and stockings.”
polymer is a long molecule.
Poly-, many, plus -mer, from Greek meros, a part. Berzelius coined it in 1833, though his meaning differed from the modern one.
Ancient Greek
πολύς — many
English, today
polymer
Built from
From poly- + -mer. From poly- + -mer, from Ancient Greek πολύς (“many”) + μέρος (“part”). coined by Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1833, though his definition was quite different from the modern one.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA