polysemous

Polysemous describes a word that has several related meanings. The phenomenon behind this property is polysemy, and the adjective polysemous is used to characterize such words or instances of meaning within a language.

The term polysemy comes from Greek polys meaning many and sema meaning sign or meaning. In linguistics, a polysemous word shares a core sense that extends to multiple distinct uses, often through processes of metaphor, metonymy, or generalization. This contrasts with other forms of lexical ambiguity where meanings are unrelated.

Polysemy can arise through historical change, where a word’s sense broadens or shifts over time, and through creative uses in different domains. The resulting senses may remain tightly connected or become only loosely related. Researchers study polysemy to understand semantic structure, language change, and how context guides interpretation. In computational linguistics, polysemy poses challenges for tasks such as word sense disambiguation and semantic parsing.

Examples of polysemous words include foot, mouth, and set. Foot can denote a body part, a unit of length, or the bottom of an object. Mouth can refer to the anatomical feature, an opening or entrance, or the mouth of a river. Set has numerous senses, including to place something, a collection, or a fixed state. In each case, the different meanings are related by a shared core concept or by metaphorical extension rather than being completely unrelated.

In usage, recognizing polysemy helps explain why context is essential for determining intended meaning and how dictionaries organize word senses.