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Monomorphism

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Monomorphism is the opposite of polymorphism. That is, a function is polymorphic if it works for several different types - and thus, a function is monomorphic if it works only for one type.

As an example,
map
is polymorphic. It's type is simply 
map :: (a -> b) -> [a] -> [b]

However, the function 

foo :: (Int -> Int) -> [Int] -> [Int]
foo = map
performs an identical operation to
map
(as is evident from the second line), but has a monomorphic type; it will only accept lists of
Int
and functions over them.

Perhaps you were looking for monomorphism restriction?

Retrieved from "http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Monomorphism"

Category: Glossary