\ә-^▐li-gә-mәr\ n (1952) A substance composed of only a few monomeric units repetitively linked to each other, such as a dimmer, trimer, tetramer, etc., or their mixtures (ASTM D 883). Other definitions in the literature place the upper limit of repeating units in an oligomer at about ten. The term telomere is sometimes used synonymously with oligomer.