What does "polysemic" mean?

Having a number of senses (meanings) or understandings.

What is a synonym for "polysemic"?

Common synonyms include: polysemantic, polysemantic, polysemous, polysemous.

Pronounced //pɒ.lɪˈsiː.mɪk//.

//pɒ.lɪˈsiː.mɪk// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Adjective

1
Having a number of senses (meanings) or understandings.
"As a series of polysemic and paradoxical sketches, Jackass does not lend itself to one particular theoretical analysis."

"As a series of polysemic and paradoxical sketches, Jackass does not lend itself to one particular theoretical analysis."

From polyseme + -ic.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.