What does "polysemy" mean?

The quality characteristic of a polyseme, a sign (such as a word or symbol) that has multiple meanings (senses), often including multiple similar ones.

How do you pronounce "polysemy"?

Pronounced //ˈpɒ.lɪ.siː.mi//.

Polysemy

Q: What is a synonym for "polysemy"?

Common synonyms include: ambiguity, double entendre, double meaning, irony, lexical ambiguity, uncertainty.

//ˈpɒ.lɪ.siː.mi// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
The quality characteristic of a polyseme, a sign (such as a word or symbol) that has multiple meanings (senses), often including multiple similar ones. uncountable, usually
"Fifty years ago the linguist and semanticist Stephen Ullmann wrote that polysemy, the fact that some words have a network of multiple but related meanings, is "the pivot of semantic analysis" […]"
2
the ambiguity of an individual word or phrase that can be used (in different contexts) to express two or more different meanings wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

ambiguity double entendre double meaning irony lexical ambiguity uncertainty

Antonyms

All antonyms

dislexification monosemy

Example

More examples

"Fifty years ago the linguist and semanticist Stephen Ullmann wrote that polysemy, the fact that some words have a network of multiple but related meanings, is "the pivot of semantic analysis" […]"

Etymology

From polyseme + -y.

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