meerduidig

Meerduidig is a Dutch linguistic term used to describe a word or expression that has more than one meaning. In English, the closest concepts are polysemy or multi-meaning. The term is commonly applied in semantics and lexicography to discuss how a single form can carry several senses, which may be related or non-related.

In practice, meerduidig is often discussed in relation to polysemy and homonymy. When the multiple meanings are semantically related, the phenomenon is usually called polysemy; when the senses are unrelated, they are sometimes described as homonyms. In everyday use, meerduidig is a broad label for ambiguity that arises from multiple possible interpretations, with context typically guiding the intended sense.

Examples of meerduidig words in Dutch include bank and licht. Bank can refer to a financial institution, a bench, or a riverbank. Licht can mean illumination, the opposite of heavy, or a light color. These cases illustrate how context, syntactic category, and collocations help speakers and listeners disambiguate meaning.

In dictionaries and language corpora, meerduidig items are typically described through enumerated senses or labeled with usage notes. Metaphorical extension and semantic shift over time contribute to the growth of polysemy, making some words more ambiguous as language evolves. Understanding meerduidig is important for lexicography, natural language processing, and language education.

See also: polysemy, homonymy, semantics, lexicography, semantic shift.