polysemy.

The condition of a word having multiple related meanings.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• lexical polysemy
• polysemy of a term

On the page

The editor traced the term’s polysemy through the passage.

Her examples showed how polysemy differed from two unrelated words sharing a spelling.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.