Polysemous is a term for words that have more than one meaning. Most words in general use are polysemous.
The word is thought to be early 20th century in origin. It comes from the prefix poly-, meaning ‘many’, and the Greek word sēma, meaning ‘sign’.
Words with a single meaning are monosemous.
how many words are there with a single meaning? Doesn’t seem like the list would be that long! Nice food for thought!
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No, there aren’t many in general usage. I think they tend to be scientific or technical terms.
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that’s a new one for me, thanks!
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Such useful posts!
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Thanks! I try to find words that are at least mildly interesting, but I’m glad they are useful too.
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