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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 is not. In discerning whether a given set of meanings ...
In common usage and linguistics, concision (also called conciseness, succinctness, [1] terseness, brevity, or laconicism) is a communication principle [2] of eliminating redundancy, [3] generally achieved by using as few words as possible in a sentence while preserving its meaning. More generally, it is achieved through the omission of parts ...
[3] [4] It also aids in making the sentence more concise by eliminating unnecessary words that could distract the reader from the main idea and following a clear pattern of language. It is a simple way to achieve clarity and avoid ambiguity, [ 5 ] but it is avoided unless the relationship of the ideas or details they express justifies ...
For example, Mark Twain (1835–1910) wrote "generally, the fewer the words that fully communicate or evoke the intended ideas and feelings, the more effective the communication." [ 25 ] Similarly Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961), the 1954 Nobel laureate for literature, defended his concise style against a charge by William Faulkner that he "had ...
For example, in English, Norman French superstratum words and Old English substratum words continue to coexist. [11] Thus, today there exist synonyms like the Norman-derived people, liberty and archer, and the Saxon-derived folk, freedom and bowman. For more examples, see the list of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English.
For example, the word 睡 ('to sleep') is an intransitive verb, but may express different meaning when coupled with objects of prepositions as in "to sleep with". However, in Mandarin, 睡 is usually coupled with a pseudo-character 觉 , yet it is not entirely a cognate object, to express the act of resting.
The advice in this guideline is not limited to the examples provided and should not be applied rigidly. If a word can be replaced by one with less potential for misunderstanding, it should be. [1] Some words have specific technical meanings in some contexts and are acceptable in those contexts, e.g. claim in law.
A thesaurus (pl.: thesauri or thesauruses), sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings (or in simpler terms, a book where one can find different words with similar meanings to other words), [1] [2] sometimes as a hierarchy of broader and narrower terms, sometimes simply as lists of synonyms and antonyms.