1. An organism or substance that has the same form or structure as another, but a different origin or composition.
Usage: biology, chemistry
2. In mathematics, a structure-preserving map or object between two mathematical systems that have the same form.
Usage: mathematics, formal

Examples

• The two mineral crystals are isomorphs, sharing identical geometric forms despite different chemical compositions.
• In chemistry, calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate are isomorphs that crystallize in similar patterns.
• Mathematicians study isomorphs to understand when two algebraic structures are fundamentally equivalent.
• The graph and the tree diagram are isomorphs in the sense that they represent the same relational information.
• Biologists discovered that the two species' skeletal structures were isomorphs, suggesting a common evolutionary ancestor.