Polysemes

Polysemes are the individual senses of a polysemous word—one form that carries multiple related meanings. A polyseme is a single sense among those meanings. Polysemy is a common feature of natural languages, where words acquire new but related uses over time. This phenomenon is often contrasted with homonymy, where unrelated senses share the same form, usually without a historical connection.

Senses become polysemous through processes such as metaphor, metonymy, extension, and specialization. A single lexical item can broaden or shift its meaning while retaining a core semantic domain, allowing speakers to infer meaning from context.

Common examples illustrate how senses stay related:

- paper: the material made from cellulose, and a written document or article (as in a research paper). The document sense derives from the material sense.

- mouth: the opening of the human face, and openings in places like a river, cave, or harbor; these senses share the region of an opening or entrance.

- foot: the body part, and the bottom or base of an object (for example, foot of a bed) or the unit of length; all relate to the notion of a base, end, or support.

- mouse: the small animal and the computer input device named for its shape and movement; the second sense extends from a metaphorical resemblance.

Dictionaries typically list polysemes as separate senses under one headword, reflecting their historical connections. Polysemy is widespread across languages and contributes to the flexibility and richness of lexical meaning.