Учебное пособие в систематизированном виде содержит необходимые для изучения курса лексикологии английского языка вспомогательные материалы: планы семинаров, определения основных понятий и терминов на английском и русском языках, темы курсовых

Polysemantic [_Jpolis:'m^ntik] (or polysemic [,poli'si:mik], polysemous [,poli'si:mos, po'lusimos]) word is a word having more than one meaning. For instance, the adjective coy is polysemantic because it has more than one meaning:

1. 
   “pretending to be shy or modest”; 2. “reluctant to give information, answer questions, etc.; secretive”.
   

Monosemantic (or monosemic, monosemous [,mono'si:m9s, ms'nosimss]) word is a word having only one meaning. Examples: hydrogen, n (“a gas that has no colour, taste or smell and is the lightest substance known, combining with oxygen to form water”); gambol, v (“to jump or skip about playfully”).
Lexico-semantic variant (LSV) is one of the individual meanings of a polysemantic word. In the word ostrich, there are at least two lexico-semantic variants: 1. “a very large African bird with a long neck, unable to fly, but fast­running”; 2. “a person who refuses to face unpleasant realities”.
Direct meaning (also primary meaning, proper meaning) is the meaning which characterizes the referent without the help of a context, in isolation.
Indirect [,ind(a)i'rekt] (variously called figurative, transferred, secondary, derived) meaning is the meaning formed from the direct meaning according to the models of semantic derivation. It is realized only in definite contexts. Let us take the noun eye as an example. Its meaning “the bodily organ with which one sees” is direct, whereas the meaning “the hole in a needle through which the thread passes” (e.g. the eye of a needle) is indirect.
Main meaning is the meaning which possesses the highest frequency at the present stage of vocabulary development. The adjective long-haired has two meanings, of which the first is the main one: 1. “having long hair”; 2. derog. “concerned with intellectual or artistic matters in a pretentious or impractical way”.