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 single word with related senses is described as a polyseme. When a word carries different meanings that are connected by a common idea or source, like foot referring to both the body part and the bottom end of something like a staircase, those meanings come from the same word and form a polyseme. This is different from a homonym, where the meanings are not related at all (for example, a bat the animal and a bat used in sports). It isn’t about synonyms, which would be different words with the same meaning, nor is it about metaphor, which is a figure of speech using one sense to evoke another. So, the best fit for a word with related senses is polyseme.