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Polysemy

//ˈpɒ.lɪ.siː.mi// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 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. 2
    the ambiguity of an individual word or phrase that can be used (in different contexts) to express two or more different meanings wordnet

Etymology

From polyseme + -y.

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