Words with double meanings or polysemantic words are not uncommon in Russian. Very often one and the same word can be called and / or characterized completely different objects or phenomena. Such words have one basic meaning - the original, literal, and one (or more) - figurative, figurative, metaphorical. The latter usually arises on the basis of some sign, similarity, association.
Examples of ambiguous nouns
Among the nouns you can find a lot of examples of words with double meanings. Here are just a few of them:
| Word | Direct meaning | Figurative meaning |
| Ticket | Airplane or train ticket, theater or movie ticket. | Examination ticket. |
| Crest | Tool for combing hair, comb. | The crest of a wave or mountain. |
| Word | Speech unit. | Literary genre. For example, "The word about Igor’s regiment." |
| Arm | Part of the body is the right hand, the left hand. | - Position, position of man - "He is my right hand."
- "Handwriting", manner of performance, recognizable signature touch - "the hand of a great artist."
- Physical strength is a "heavy hand."
|
| Brush | The hand is the part of the body from the wrist to the tips of the fingers. | Paint tool. |
| Work | Physical labor, effort, occupation of a person. | The visible result of physical labor is “Good job!”. |
| Sheet | A leaf growing on a tree. | A sheet of paper, notebook or landscape sheet. |
| Root | Tree root. The part of the tree that is underground. | - The mathematical root of the number. For example, the root of the number 4 is 2.
- The reason for some phenomenon or event is the "root of evil", "the root of the problems."
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| Debt | The amount of money or material value promised by one person to another, the result of borrowing. | Moral desire for something, moral duty. |
This is not the whole list. It is probably simply impossible to compose the whole, because there are almost as many words with a double meaning in Russian as there are unambiguous ones.
Examples of multi-valued adjectives
Different objects in one word can not only be called, but also characterized. Here are some examples of such words:
| Word | Direct meaning | Figurative meaning |
| Steel | Made of steel. For example, a steel knife. | Very strong, unshakable - "steel nerves." |
| Gold | Made of gold - "gold earrings", "gold necklace". | Very valuable, kind, possessing outstanding moral qualities - “golden man”, “golden child”, “golden heart”. |
| Heavy | High physical effort is "hard work." | About something that is hard for others to endure - a “heavy person”, “a heavy character”. |
| White | White color - "white snow", "white sheet". | The poem without rhyme is the "white verse". |
| The black | Black - black eyes, black marker. | Angry, sarcastic, touching sensitive topics in a rude manner - "black humor", "black comedy". |
Again, the list is incomplete. In addition, the list of words with a double meaning includes adjectives that describe both colors, smells and / or tastes: orange, raspberry, lemon, plum and so on.
Examples of multivalued verbs
Action words can also have more than one meaning:
| Word | Direct meaning | Figurative meaning |
| To sit down | Sit on a chair, in a chair, on a horse. | Take the train (not literally sit on the roof of the train, but in the portable - take your place in it). |
| Get off / get off | You can get off the train, get off at the desired stop, go to the store. | "Go crazy / crazy." |
| Beat | To strike. | "The spring is in a fountain," "life is in full swing." |
| Cut | Separate into pieces with a knife or other sharp blade. | To cause an unpleasant sensation - “light cuts the eyes”, “sound cuts the ear”. |
Most often, words with a double meaning are words that are originally Russian. For borrowed terms, the meaning is usually the same.
Differences from Homonyms
It is very important to distinguish words with a double meaning from homonyms: different words that are written the same way. Ambiguous words have a direct, basic meaning, and transferred according to some criterion. In homonyms, all meanings are independent. For example, the words “handle” (door) and “handle” (writing) are homonyms, since there is no connection between them. But the word "satellite" is ambiguous - the celestial body was called "satellite", because it moves around the planet, like a human satellite.