How to Differentiate Between Homonyms and Polysemes

There are numerous word types that by semantic definition are hard to define without context. Included in this category are homonyms and polysemes. Traditionally, homonyms and polysemes are similar in that they both have variations of meaning for a phonologically identical word. However, the fact that polysemes and homonyms are phonologically identical leads to the conclusion that context is required to determine which definition or sense of the word the speaker or writer intended. So, assuming you are given a context, how then do you determine whether a word is a homonym or a polyseme? There are some simple steps that will clarify the difference.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. 

   Start by reviewing the semantic notion of a homonym. A homonym is a word that sounds the same as another word yet has a different meaning. Homonyms can be further broken down into homophones; words that are pronounced identically though spelled differently and homographs; words that are pronounced and spelled identically. In both instances of homonymy the requirement is for the common words to have unrelated meanings.

2. 
   River Bank

   Look at examples of homonyms. Following is an example of a pair of homophones and a pair of homographs:
   
   Homophone: bare (uncover) bear (the mammal)
   Homograph: bank (financial institute) bank (side of a river)

3. Now review the semantic notion of polysemy. With polysemy the reference is to a single word with different senses of the same basic meaning. Polysemes are also etymologically related, whereas Homonyms are not.

4. Look at examples of a set of polysemes. Following is an example of four versions of the same word with four distinct senses of meaning:
   
   Polyseme: crawl (move slowly on hands and knees)
   crawl (move slowly in traffic)
   crawl (to be covered with moving things)
   crawl (to swim the crawl)

Tips & Warnings

• It is also important to note that the meanings of etymologically related words can drift so far apart over time that it is hard to see the original semantic relation. What this means is, that in effect, a polyseme can become a homonym over time.