morpho-, morph-, -morphous, -morphically, -morphia, -morphosis, -morphously, -morphy, -morphic, -morphism

1. The study of the classification, description, nature, origin, and development of present landforms and their relationships to underlying structures, and of the history of geologic changes as recorded by these surface features.
2. That branch of geology that studies the characteristics, processes that shape them, and configurations and evolutions of rocks and land forms.

Geomorphologists seek to understand landform history and dynamics, and predict future changes through a combination of field observations, physical experiments, and numerical modeling. The discipline is practiced within geology, geography, archaeology, and civil and environmental engineering. Early studies in geomorphology are the foundations for pedology, one of two main branches of soil science.

Geomorphology is the science of landforms. It is the science that provides us with a closer look at the Earth's surface and the processes that have formed them. Although geomorphology is concerned with landforms that currently exist, past landforms and events must be examined in order to fully understand how they came about.

Although the term geomorphology is a relatively new term (1880's), the examination of the forces of nature that have impacted the Earth's surface extends back into the days of early Greek and Roman philosophers such as Aristotle and Seneca. Their writings included ideas on stream erosion, earthquakes and other deformations. Though these early philosophers speculated on the ideas of landscape evolution, these processes and thoughts were not fully examined until just before the 1800's.

Small elongated centipedes living in soil and under stones and having more than 30 pairs of legs.

1. A condition of appearing prematurely old or aged.
2. Having the appearance of age greater than one's real age.

1. An organism having both male and female characteristics, especially an insect exhibiting a mixture of male and female tissues or sex organs.
2. Someone having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs; at birth an unambiguous assignment of male or female cannot be made; synonyms: hermaphrodite, intersex, androgyne.

Having both male and female morphological characteristics; hermaphroditic.

A description of crystals that do not have a horizontal axis of symmetry, so that the top and bottom of the crystal display different forms.

A white mineral; a common ore of zinc.

1. In biology, having a different appearance; differing in shape, size, or structure; such as, heteromorphic sex chromosomes. 2. In biology, taking different forms at different stages of a life cycle.
3. In medicine, characterized by an atypical form or forms.
4. Differing from the standard form in size or structure: heteromorphic chromosome pairs.

Deviating from the normal, perfect, or mature form; having different forms at different stages of existence, or in different individuals of the same species; applied especially to insects in which there is a wide difference of form between the larva and the adult, and to plants having more than one form of flower.

1. The development of one tissue from a tissue of another kind or type.
2. The embryonic development of a tissue or an organ inappropriate to its site.
3. The production in an organism of an abnormal or misplaced part, especially in place of one that has been lost (as the regeneration of a tail in place of a head).
4. The production of a malformed or malposed tissue or organ.
5. The formation of tissue of a different type from that from which it is derived.

Many mathematicians prefer the term "holomorphic function" to "analytic function", as the latter is a more general concept. This is also because an important result in complex analysis is that every holomorphic function is complex analytic, a fact that does not follow directly from the definitions. The term "analytic" is however also in wide use.

In biology, the perfect regeneration of a lost member or part.

1. In chemistry, a close similarity in the crystal forms of unlike compounds.
2. In mathematics, a continuous bijection between two figures whose inverse is also continuous.

A near similarity of crystalline forms between unlike chemical compounds.

1. In biology, similarity of external form or appearance but not of structure or origin.
2. In zoology, a resemblance in form between the immature and adult stages of an animal.
3. Of, relating to, or characterized by a similarity of form but different structure.
4. Relating to two or more structures of similar size and form, usually of synaptic chromosomes.
5. In mathematics, a transformation of one set into another that preserves in the second set the operations between the members of the first set.

1. Similarity of form with different fundamental structure; specifically, superficial resemblance between organisms of different groups due to evolutionary convergence.
2. Resemblance in external characteristics, while widely different in fundamental structure.