different between monosemous vs polysemous

English

Adjective

monosemous (not comparable)

1. Having only one meaning or interpretation.

Synonyms

• monosemic, unambiguous, univocal; see also Thesaurus:explicit

Antonyms

• polysemous
• polysemic

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin polys?mus, from Ancient Greek ????????? (polús?mos), from ????? (polús, “many”) + ??????? (s?maín?, “I signify, mean”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p??l?s.?.m?s/, /?p?l.??si?.m?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p??l.i?si?.m?s/, /p??l?s.?.m?s/
• ,

Adjective

polysemous (not comparable)

1. (linguistics) Having multiple meanings or interpretations.

   Synonyms: polysemantic, polysemic

   Antonyms: monosemous, univocal

   • 2000, Yael Ravin, Claudia Leacock, Polysemy: Theoretical and Computational Approaches, OUP Oxford (?ISBN), page 52:

     But just how are the meanings associated with a polysemous word related? A look at the entries for polysemous words in different dictionaries shows that lexicographers cannot agree on how to divide up the semantic space […]

Related terms

• polysemy

Translations