metatype
nounEtymology From meta- + type.
1
Biology, Natural sciences A topotype of a species which is confirmed as belonging to that species by the author who originally described it
2
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Programming, Sciences The type of a type.
- The Type suffix specifies that this variable will be a metatype and not an object (meaning the implementation class and not an instance of it).2015, Adam Freeman, Pro Design Patterns in Swift, Apress, →ISBN, page 199:
- You can use a variable reference to a type (a metatype) to instantiate that type, but you can't just append parentheses to a variable reference: […]2019, Matt Neuburg, iOS 13 Programming Fundamentals with Swift […] , O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 186: