eli5: Why do some chemical compounds have “poly” in the name?

Question

I understand that poly means “many” or something along those lines. But whenever I hear something with poly in the name it feels like it gives literally no additional info other than it has two or more of something. Is it more than a specified number? I’m confused.

In: 0

Answer 1

Basically it often means that the chemical is repeated a great many times so it forms a chain like a polymer.