A word with different but related senses, such as a person’s foot and the foot of the stairs, is called a what?

A word with different but related senses, such as a person’s foot and the foot of the stairs, is called a what?

• A. Polyseme
• B. Homonym
• C. Synonym
• D. Metaphor

Answer: (A)

A word having multiple related meanings is called polysemy. Foot in the sense of a person’s body part and foot of the stairs share a common idea of a bottom or base, so these senses are connected through the same word form. That connection across related meanings is what makes the term polyseme appropriate.

If meanings were truly unrelated, we’d call them homonyms, which isn’t the case here. Synonyms are different words with the same meaning, not multiple senses of one word. Metaphor is a figure of speech, not a way to classify a word’s senses. So the best label is polyseme.