polynym
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: polynyms
Etymology: From poly- + -nym.
Senses: examples: text: They agree upon one point, viz., the advantages, other things being equal, of mononyms (single word terms) over polynyms (terms consisting of two or more words).
ref: 1890, The American Naturalist - Volume 24, page 695:
glosses: A name consisting of multiple words.
examples: text: Dyaus, the Bright- Shining-One-in-the-Heavens, or Maruna, the All-Surrounding, All- Enduring-One ; or Agni, the Everywhere-Present-One, became the polynyms for God.
ref: 1893 January to October, Condé B. Pallen, “The Primitive Creed of Man”, in The American Catholic Quarterly Review, volume 18, page 602:
text: The way to avoid term disputes is not to impose mononymy but, rather, to insist that the syn-tags for a given polynym (multinym) be clearly identified.
ref: 1997, Knowledge Organization: KO. - Volume 24, page 17:
text: For once the former are known, the remaining two will be known too, since they are their opposites, and opposites are known by the same knowledge. In knowing what is a homonym, one will also know its opposite, I mean a polynym.
ref: 2014, Riin Sirkel, Martin Tweedale, John Harris, Philoponus: On Aristotle Categories 1–5 with Philoponus, →ISBN:
text: Thus, Afham's second role as a Kierkegaardian polynym is to render his reader visible.
ref: 2016, Katalin Nun, Jon Stewart, Volume 17: Kierkegaard's Pseudonyms, →ISBN:
glosses: One of multiple names for the same thing.
examples: text: A few dictionaries have treated all the meanings sub-meanings of a polynym under one entry.
ref: 1986, Āyvuk kōvai - Issue 1, Volume 18:
text: You have to listen for homonyms (sea/see/C, tea/T, et cetera), look for polynyms (letter/letter, degree/degree), and be on the alert for the slightest multiplicity of meaning.
ref: 1988 -, Douglas Pratt, The Laser Video Disc Companion: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Laser Video Discs:
text: With respect to polynyms, the selection of the senses poses certain problems. In a general dictionary, the entry should be as comprehensive as possible, but this practice is not followed in those cited.
ref: 1995, A. Athithan, “Polysemantic Words in Tamil Dictionaries”, in South Asian Language Review, volumes 5-6, page 40:
text: A graph based disambiguation algorithm is introduced to resolve the ambiguities such as synonyms and polynyms in place names.
ref: 2010, Natarajan Meghanathan, Selma Boumerdassi, Nabendu Chaki, Recent Trends in Networks and Communications, →ISBN:
glosses: A single word or name with multiple distinct (although possibly related) meanings.
examples: text: ) We have also furnished a list of polynyms, partly from the same source, and partly from Worcester's Dictionary, in Table IX in the Appendix, but we fear that it is not very complete.
ref: 1848, Alexander John Ellis, A Plea for Phoenetic Spelling: Or, The Necessity of Orthographic Reform:
text: By our factious orthography, we argue ad hominem, that confusion is produced; polynyms are as numerous as homonyms.
ref: 1858, The R.I. Schoolmaster - Volume 4, Issue 8, page 306:
glosses: A word that is spelled the same as another, but which has a different pronunciation and meaning; homograph.
Related terms: polynymous
polynymy