Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
For example, a word can have several word senses. [3] Polysemy is distinct from monosemy, where a word has a single meaning. [3] Polysemy is distinct from homonymy—or homophony—which is an accidental similarity between two or more words (such as bear the animal, and the verb bear); whereas homonymy is a mere linguistic coincidence, polysemy ...
For the second portion of the list, see List of words having different meanings in American and British English: M–Z. Asterisked (*) meanings, though found chiefly in the specified region, also have some currency in the other region; other definitions may be recognised by the other as Briticisms or Americanisms respectively. Additional usage ...
The meaning of the small bloodsucking creature coexisted with the meaning of physician. The former is still used today. lich corpse lich liss relief liss reave: rob reave Today found mostly in "Reaver", meaning robber or highwayman. rime: number rime ruth pity ruth Usage persists to a greater degree in "Ruthless" and to a lesser degree "Ruthful".
Metonymy and related figures of speech are common in everyday speech and writing. Synecdoche and metalepsis are considered specific types of metonymy. Polysemy, the capacity for a word or phrase to have multiple meanings, sometimes results from relations of metonymy.
Many of these words have the same origin, and similar meanings, and are essentially the same word. True heteronyms require the two words to be completely unrelated, which is a rare occurrence. For a longer list, see wikt:Category:English heteronyms.
When the prefix "re-" is added to a monosyllabic word, the word gains currency both as a noun and as a verb. Most of the pairs listed below are closely related: for example, "absent" as a noun meaning "missing", and as a verb meaning "to make oneself missing". There are also many cases in which homographs are of an entirely separate origin, or ...
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau [a] —is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] English examples include smog , coined by blending smoke and fog , [ 3 ] [ 5 ] as well as motel , from motor ( motorist ) and hotel .
A contronym is a word with two opposite meanings. For example, the word cleave can mean "to cut apart" or "to bind together". This feature is also called enantiosemy, [1] [2] enantionymy (enantio-means "opposite"), antilogy or autoantonymy. An enantiosemic term is by definition polysemic.