Editing Definition (section)

==Terms with multiple definitions==

===Homonyms===
{{main|Homonym}}
A [[homonym]] is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and pronunciation but have different  meanings.<ref name="RHUD">[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/homonym homonym], ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' at dictionary.com</ref>  Thus homonyms are simultaneously [[homograph]]s (words that share the same spelling, regardless of their pronunciation) ''and'' [[homophone]]s (words that share the same pronunciation, regardless of their spelling).  The state of being a homonym is called ''homonymy''. Examples of homonyms are the pair ''stalk'' (part of a plant) and ''stalk'' (follow/harass a person) and the pair ''left'' (past tense of leave) and ''left'' (opposite of right).  A distinction is sometimes made between "true" homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as ''skate'' (glide on ice) and ''skate'' (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or [[Polysemy|polysemes]], which have a shared origin, such as ''mouth'' (of a river) and ''mouth'' (of an animal).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/semanticsHANDOUT.htm |title=Linguistics 201: Study Sheet for Semantics |publisher=Pandora.cii.wwu.edu |access-date=2013-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617090717/http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/semanticsHANDOUT.htm |archive-date=2013-06-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=AefSOW9MW5UC&pg=PA123 Semantics: a coursebook, p. 123], James R. Hurford and Brendan Heasley, Cambridge University Press, 1983</ref>

===Polysemes===
{{main|Polysemy}}
[[Polysemy]]  is the capacity for a [[sign (semiotics)|sign]] (such as a [[word]], [[phrase]], or [[symbol]]) to have multiple meanings (that is, multiple [[seme (semantics)|semes]] or [[sememe]]s and thus multiple [[word sense|senses]]), usually related by contiguity of [[meaning (linguistics)|meaning]] within a [[semantic field]]. It is thus usually regarded as distinct from [[homonymy]], in which the multiple meanings of a word may be unconnected or unrelated.