noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
Received-Pronunciation:/ˈpɒl.ɪ.mə/
General-American, dialectal:/ˈpɑ.lɪ.mɚ/of Canada
General-American, dialectal:/ˈpɑ.lə.mɚ/of Canada
California:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Canada, dialectal:/ˈpɒl.ə.mɚ/of the US
Australian:/ˈpɔl.ə.mə/
New-Zealand:/ˈpɒl.ə.mə/
New-Zealand:[ˈpɔ̟l.ə.mə]
CMU ARPABET:P AA1 L AH0 M ER0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
A long or larger molecule consisting of a chain or network of many repeating units, formed by chemically bonding together many identical or similar small molecules called monomers. A polymer is formed by polymerization, the joining of many monomer molecules.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
From poly- + -mer, from Ancient Greek πολύς (polús, “many”) + μέρος (méros, “part”). Coined by Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1833, though his definition was quite different from the modern one.
Across languages
Translations
51 source translations are retained for this English entry.
