In taxonomy, a heterogeneous taxon is a taxon that contains a great variety of individuals or sub-taxa; usually this implies that the taxon is an artificial grouping.

heterozygous

homozygous

Distributed computing

amorphous

homogenization

mesoporous silicates

heteroazeotrope

Heterogeneous means that something (an object or system) consists of a diverse range of different items. It is the antonym of homogeneous, which means that an object or system consists of many identical items. Matters of a quantum can exist in homogenous or in heterogeneous or in combined distributions. The term is often used in a scientific (such as a kind of catalyst), mathematical, sociological or statistical context. A heterogeneous compound, mixture, reaction or other such object is one that consists of many different items, which are often not easily sorted or separated, though they are clearly distinct. A heterogeneous mixture is a mixture of two or more compounds. In chemical kinetics, a heterogeneous reaction is one that takes place at the interface of two or more i.e. between a solid and a gas, a liquid and a gas, or a solid and a liquid.

In the world of enterprise computing, heterogeneous data is a mix of data from two or more sources, often of two or more formats, e.g., SQL and XML. Distributed systems are called heterogeneous if they contain many different types of hardware and software.

Homogeneity and heterogeneity are terms used to describe variety in many aspects of human groups, communities and populations, including cultural, demographic, ethnic and socio-political. In Economics and Social Sciences, 'heterogeneous agents' refers to a set of agents with different properties. The opposite of 'heterogeneous agents' in economic terminology is 'representative agent'.