Polysemy

The property of a word having multiple related meanings or senses. For example, the word "bank" can refer to a financial institution or the edge of a river. Polysemy creates particular challenges for text simplification and accessibility tools because choosing an appropriate simpler synonym requires understanding which sense of the word is intended in context. Context-aware algorithms like CASSA address this by using surrounding text to disambiguate word senses before generating simpler alternatives. Polysemy also affects readability for people with dyslexia and cognitive disabilities, as disambiguating multiple meanings adds cognitive load during reading.