Polysemous

//pəˈlɪs.ɪ.məs// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Synonym of polysemic. not-comparable

    "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 […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    of words; having many meanings wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
polysemanticagnosticambiguouscapriciouschancychangeable

Example

More examples

"Polysemous word is a word which has got several meanings."

Etymology

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

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