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" […]
Source: wiktionary
Polysemy
//ˈpɒ.lɪ.siː.mi//
Synonyms for "polysemy" (6 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (2)
Noun(1 words)
Strong matches (1)
Related words (3)
Noun(1 words)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
3 entriesAntonyms
2 entriesRelated terms
6 entriescoordinate
3 entriesderived from
2 entrieshas context
1 entriesis a
1 entriesrelated to
9 entriesTranslations
64 translations across 52 languages.
Albanian
1 entries- polisemi noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Arabic
1 entries- تَعَدُّدُ مَعَانٍ noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Armenian
1 entries- բազմիմաստություն noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Azerbaijani
2 entries- polisemiya noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- полисемия noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Basque
1 entries- polisemia noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Belarusian
1 entries- полісемія noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Breton
1 entries- liessteriegezh noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Bulgarian
1 entries- полисемия noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Catalan
1 entries- polisèmia noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Chinese Cantonese
1 entries- 多義性 /多义性 noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Chinese Mandarin
2 entries- 一詞多義 /一词多义 noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- 多義性 /多义性 noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Crimean Tatar
1 entries- çoqmanalılıq noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Czech
1 entries- polysémie noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Danish
1 entries- polysemi noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Dutch
1 entries- polysemie noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Esperanto
1 entries- polisemio noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Finnish
2 entries- monimerkityksisyys noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- polysemia noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
French
1 entries- polysémie noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Galician
1 entries- polisemia noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Georgian
2 entries- მრავალმნიშვენლიანობა noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- პოლისემია noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
German
2 entries- Mehrdeutigkeit noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- Polysemie noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Greek
1 entries- πολυσημία noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Hungarian
1 entries- poliszémia noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Ido
1 entries- polisemio noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Indonesian
1 entries- polisemi noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Irish
1 entries- ilchiallachas noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Italian
1 entries- polisemia noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Japanese
1 entries- 多義性 noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Kazakh
1 entries- полисемия noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Korean
1 entries- 다의성 noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Kyrgyz
1 entries- полисемия noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Latvian
1 entries- polisēmija noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Lithuanian
1 entries- polisemija noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Lower Sorbian
1 entries- polysemija noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Macedonian
1 entries- полисемија noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Norwegian Bokmål
1 entries- polysemi noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Norwegian Nynorsk
1 entries- polysemi noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Persian
1 entries- چندمعنایی noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Polish
2 entries- polisemia noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- wieloznaczność noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Portuguese
1 entries- polissemia noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Romanian
1 entries- polisemie noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Russian
2 entries- многозна́чность noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- полисеми́я noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Serbo-Croatian
2 entries- polisèmija noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- полисѐмија noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Slovak
2 entries- mnohoznačnosť noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- polysémia noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Slovene
2 entries- polisemija noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- večpomenskost noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Spanish
1 entries- polisemia noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Swedish
1 entries- polysemi noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Turkish
1 entries- çokanlamlılık noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Ukrainian
2 entries- багатозначність noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- полісемія noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Upper Sorbian
1 entries- polysemija noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Uzbek
2 entries- polisemiya noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
- полисемия noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Welsh
1 entries- amlystyredd noun (ability to have multiple meanings)
Sample sentences
2 total sentences available.
Polysemy proliferates in natural language: Virtually every word is polysemous to some extent.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.