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Semantics  ·  The Life of Words
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What is polysemy?
While different words may have the same or similar meaning, the same one word may have more than one meaning. This is what we call polysemy — and such a word is called a polysemous word.
The more commonly used a word is, the more likely it has
accumulated multiple meanings over time.
Homonymy
bank¹riverside
bank²financial
✕
Two separate words sharing the same form. Their origins are completely unrelated — there is no semantic link between them.
bakkr (Old Norse) ≠ banco (Italian)
Polysemy
table
furniture
data table
plateau
One word whose meanings have grown over time from a common root — through metaphor, metonymy, or domain shift.
tabula (Latin) → all senses
TABLE
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Polysemy is everywhere
run
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run
  • move quickly on foot
  • manage or operate
  • flow or stream
  • a score in baseball
  • a continuous period
head
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head
  • body part above neck
  • leader of a group
  • the top or front
  • to move toward
  • foam on a glass of beer
light
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light
  • electromagnetic radiation
  • not heavy in weight
  • pale in color or shade
  • to set fire to
  • gentle or mild
spring
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spring
  • the season after winter
  • to jump or leap suddenly
  • a coiled elastic device
  • a natural water source
  • to crack or split open
How "table" grew its meanings
Primary meaning · origin
tabula (Latin) first referred to a thin flat piece of stone or wood — a surface for writing or placing objects.
Metaphorical extension
The flat-surface idea extended to a piece of furniture — a raised platform on legs for eating and working.
Metonymy · association
From the object to its context: all the people seated at a table, then the food placed upon it.
Abstraction · domain transfer
The visual structure of rows and columns gave rise to an orderly arrangement of data or facts.
Specialization · technical domains
The core flat-surface idea spread further: a plateau in geography, a machine surface in engineering.
Three things to know about polysemy
1

Meanings share a semantic core

Unlike homonymy, polysemous senses trace back to one origin — connected through metaphor, metonymy, or specialization, not coincidence.

2

Context resolves ambiguity

"She cleared the table" vs. "a table of statistics" — surrounding language and situation always determine which sense of a polysemous word applies.

3

Frequency drives expansion

High-frequency words accumulate more meanings because they appear in more contexts — and each new context is an opportunity for semantic extension.

Polysemy  ·  Semantics  ·  2026
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黄贻福
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谭清华
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周剑
Business English · Linguistics
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