Amorfos

Amorfos is the transliteration of the Greek adjective άμορφος, meaning shapeless or without form. In Greek, the root morphos appears in many words describing shape, and amorfos serves as the masculine singular form used in various compound terms. The word is used in both everyday language and specialized texts to convey a lack of definite shape.

In science, amorphous describes materials that do not possess long-range crystalline order. This contrasts with crystalline solids, which have a repeating lattice. Amorphous materials typically exhibit isotropy and short-range order, and their properties can differ significantly from crystalline counterparts in aspects such as mechanical strength, diffusion, and optical behavior. Common examples include glass, many polymers when not crystallized, gels, and amorphous metals, also known as metallic glasses.

In language and transliteration, amorfo or amorfos may appear in Greek texts to indicate formlessness. The English term amorphous is derived from the same root, while amorfos is used primarily in Greek-language contexts or transliterations. The concept of shapelessness appears across disciplines including physics, chemistry, geology, and materials science, where it helps distinguish materials without ordered internal structure from their crystalline relatives.

See also: amorphous, morph, Greek language terms related to form.