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Polysemy vs Homograph - What's the difference?

polysemy | homograph |

As nouns the difference between polysemy and homograph

is that polysemy is the ability of words, signs and symbols to have multiple meanings while homograph is a word that is spelled the same as another word, usually having a different etymology, such as "bear", the animal, and "bear", to support, to tolerate, etc.

polysemy

English

(wikipedia polysemy)

Noun

(-)
  • (semantics) The ability of words, signs and symbols to have multiple meanings.
    • [...] polysemy , which is the greedy habit some words have of taking more than one meaning for themselves. , speech at TED.

    Antonyms

    * monosemy

    Related terms

    * polysemic * polysemous

    See also

    * homonymy

    homograph

    English

    (wikipedia homograph)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A word that is spelled the same as another word, usually having a different etymology, such as "bear", the animal, and "bear", to support, to tolerate, etc.

    • Usage notes

    Homographs are a kind of (homonym) in the loose sense of that term, i.e. a word that is either a (homophone) (same sound) or a (homograph) (same spelling). (The strict sense of homonym is a word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word.) Specifically, homographs must have the same spelling, though they usually have different meanings and may be pronounced differently. * The verb are homographs with the same pronunciation and different etymological origins. * The verb are homographs with different pronunciations but close etymological origins. Such homographs are also heteronyms. * The verb are not homographs since they have different spellings.

    Related terms

    * * homographic * homography

    See also

    (en) * polyphone