poly-

(Greek: many, much; excessive; abnormal amount, profuse, ample, large quantity; multiple, abundant, numerous)

Don’t confuse this poly- with another -poly which means “to sell”.

polytocous (adjective) (not comparable)
1. Pertaining to the delivery of many offspring at one birth; multiparous: In her biology class at school, Amy learned about polytocous childbirth and the causes of such partitions.
2. Concerning vegetation producing flowers or fruit many times during its life cycle: Perennials are considered to be polytocous plants that have blossoms repeatedly.
polytrichia
1. Very hairy; thickly covered with hair; especially in comparison with other people of the same race and sex.
2. Excessive hairiness.
3. An excessive growth of the hair.
polytrichosis
polytrichous
polytrophic
1. A reference to obtaining nourishment from a variety of organic material; such as, certain bacteria.
2. Exhibiting an attraction, trophism, for multiple organs; usually used for a virus which affects multiple organ systems.
polytrophy
1. Feeding on a variety of different food substances or food species.
2. In pathology, marked by or pertaining to excessive nutrition.
polyunsaturated
Relating to long-chain carbon compounds; especially, fats, having many unsaturated bonds.
polyuria
Excessive urination, as in some diseases.
polyuric
A descriptive term for the excretion of an abnormally large quantity of urine.
polyxenous
polyxeny
1. A parasite associated with many hosts during its life-cycle.
2. A parasite that is not host specific; also, pleioxeny.
polyzoan (s) (noun), polyzoans (pl)
An obsolete term for minute water colonial invertebrates; bryozoan: Polyzoans are animals that form branching, mosslike colonies, and reproduce by budding.
polyzoic (adjective) (not comparable)
Concerning an organism composed of various zooids: A polyzoic lifeform has many motile cells or bodies, like a tapeworm, that typically divide into proglottids that consistently shed into the surrounding area to infect other animals.
psychogenic nocturnal polydipsia syndrome
Emotionally induced excessive water drinking at night.
psychogenic polydipsia
Excessive fluid consumption resulting from a disorder of the personality, without any demonstrable organic lesion (pathological or traumatic discontinuity of tissue or loss of the function of a body part).

Related topics utilizing this poly- prefix: Polysemy and Polysemous and Polygamy Sections.

Inter-related cross references, directly or indirectly, involving word units meaning "more, plentiful, fullness, excessive, over flowing": copi-; exuber-; hyper-; multi-; opulen-; ple-; pleio-; plethor-; super-; total-; ultra-; undu-.