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Look up polyvalent in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Polyvalent is a synonym for multivalent and denotes something which has many values, meanings or appeals. The metaphoric origin of valent is derived from valency in chemistry and by metaphoric attribution, may now connote a "subtle, polyvalent allegory". In chemistry the terms polyvalent or multivalent can be used to refer to species which are not univalent or monovalent. For example, the Cs+ cation is a univalent or monovalent cation, whereas the Ca++ cation is a divalent or polyvalent or multivalent cation and the Fe+++ cation is a trivalent or polyvalent or multivalent cation. As a result, examples of polyvalent cations include the Ca++ cation and the Fe+++ cation.[1]
Specific uses may refer to:
- Polysemy
- Polyvalent vaccine, a vaccine that can vaccinate a person against more than one strain of a disease
- Antivenins are classified as polyvalent when they are effective against a range of species, or several different species at the same time
Notes
- ^ Since 1976, there have been 21,637 US patents issued that employ the terms polyvalent or poly-valent in connection with concepts like polyvalent cations and polyvalent ligands as disclosed above <http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=((polyvalent+OR+%22poly-valent%22).BSUM.+or+(polyvalent+OR+%22poly-valent%22).DETD.+or+(polyvalent+OR+%22poly-valent%22).DRWD.)&OS=spec/(polyvalent+or+"poly-valent")&RS=SPEC/(polyvalent+OR+"poly-valent")>. US Patent 7,375,234 is one example of these 21,637 recent US patents.
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