Pleomorphism

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Pleomorphism in The American Heritage Dictionary is defined as the occurrence of two or more structural forms during a life cycle, especially of certain plants.

In the first decades of the 20th century, the term was used to refer to the supposed ability of bacteria to change shape dramatically or to exist in a number of extreme morphological (changing) forms. This claim sparked a controversy among the microbiologists and split them into two schools: the monomorphists, who opposed the claim, and the pleomorphists (such as Antoine Béchamp). Monomorphic theory, supported by Rudolf Virchow, Ferdinand Cohn, and Robert Koch, emerged to become the dominant paradigm in modern medical science.

It is now almost universally believed that each bacterial cell is derived from a previously existing cell of practically the same size and shape.