polysemous

polysemous

English

WOTD – 2 February 2008

Etymology

From Medieval Latin polysēmus, from Ancient Greek πολύσημος (polúsēmos), from πολύς (polús, “many”) + σημαίνω (sēmaínō, “I signify, mean”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˈlɪs.ɪ.məs/, /ˌpɒl.ɪˈsiː.məs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpɑːl.iˈsiː.məs/, /pəˈlɪs.ə.məs/

• Audio (US)

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  Audio (US)

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Adjective

polysemous (not comparable)

1. (linguistics) Having multiple meanings or interpretations.

   Synonyms: polysemantic, polysemic

   Antonyms: monosemous, univocal

   • 2000, Yael Ravin, Claudia Leacock, Polysemy: Theoretical and Computational Approaches, OUP Oxford (→ISBN), page 52:

     But just how are the meanings associated with a polysemous word related? A look at the entries for polysemous words in different dictionaries shows that lexicographers cannot agree on how to divide up the semantic space […]

Related terms

• polysemy

Translations

having multiple meanings

Chinese: Mandarin: 多義 (zh), 多义 (zh) (duōyì) Finnish: monimerkityksinen (fi) French: polysémique (fr)

Greek: πολύσημος (el) m (polýsimos) Icelandic: (polysemous word) margrætt orð n Polish: polisemiczny m, wieloznaczny (pl) m Portuguese: polissémico (Portugal), polissêmico (Brazil)