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Polysemy (/pəˈlɪsɪmi/ or /ˈpɒlɪˌsiːmi/;[1][2] from Ancient Greek πολύ- (polý-) 'many' and σῆμα (sêma) 'sign') is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a symbol, a morpheme, a word, or a phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses.[3] Polysemy is distinct from monosemy, where a word has a single meaning.[3]
Polysemy is distinct from homonymy—or homophony—which is an accidental similarity between two or more words (such as bear the animal, and the verb bear); whereas homonymy is a mere linguistic coincidence, polysemy is not. In discerning whether a given set of meanings represent polysemy or homonymy, it is often necessary to look at the history of the word to see whether the two meanings are historically related. Dictionary writers often list polysemes (words or phrases with different, but related, senses) in the same entry (that is, under the same headword) and enter homonyms as separate headwords (usually with a numbering convention such as ¹bear and ²bear).
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the three most polysemous words in English are run, put, and set, in that order.[4][5]
- ^ "polysemous". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition). 2000. Archived from the original on 28 June 2008.
- ^ "definition of polysemy". Oxford Dictionaries Online.[dead link]
- ^ a b Falkum, Ingrid Lossius; Vicente, Agustin (2020-02-26), "Polysemy", Linguistics, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0259, ISBN 978-0-19-977281-0, retrieved 2022-06-06
- ^ Simon Winchester, “Has 'run' run amok? It has 645 meanings… so far”. NPR, 30 May 2011.
- ^ Brandon Specktor, “The most complicated word in English is only three letters long”, Reader's Digest, 9 Nov 2022.