polysemous

When a word or phrase has several meanings, you can describe that word as polysemous. One word that's famously polysemous is "bank."

You can choose a pronunciation for this adjective with stress on the second or third syllable since most dictionaries give both. Polysemous is a word lover's favorite, since it's about the meanings of words — lots of them in this case. Its complementary buddy is monosemous, which describes words that have only one meaning. The Greek root of polysemous is polysemos, "of many senses."

Definitions of polysemous

1. adjective

   of words; having many meanings
   synonyms: polysemantic

   ambiguous

   having more than one possible meaning