The set of all continuous symmetric multilinear forms of degree m on a real topological vector space V are shown to be in one-to-one correspondence with the family of continuous scalar-valued functions on V satisfying a certain functional equation. If V is n-dimensional, these functions are precisely those which can be represented by m-homogeneous polynomials of degree n (with respect to some basis of V). The connection between this family of generalized polynomials and the mth derivatives of a scalar-valued function is discussed.