Oligomer

[3] The oligomer concept is contrasted to that of a polymer, which is usually understood to have a large number of units, possibly thousands or millions.

The units of an oligomer may be arranged in a linear chain (as in melam, a dimer of melamine); a closed ring (as in 1,3,5-trioxane, a cyclic trimer of formaldehyde); or a more complex structure (as in tellurium tetrabromide, a tetramer of TeBr4 with a cube-like core).

The major capsid protein VP1 that comprises the shell of polyomaviruses is a self-assembling multimer of 72 pentamers held together by local electric charges.

[3] Telomerization is an oligomerization carried out under conditions that result in chain transfer, limiting the size of the oligomers.

[4][3] (This concept is not to be confused with the formation of a telomere, a region of highly repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome.)

The 15-crown-5 crown ether , a cyclic oligomer, and its monomer, ethylene oxide .
A tetrapeptide , a hetero-oligomer of the amino acids valine (green), glycine (black), serine (black), and alanine (blue). The units were joined by condensation of the carboxylic acid group –C(=O)OH of one monomer with the amine group H 2 N− of the next one.
A pentamer unit of the major capsid protein VP1. Each monomer is in a different color.