heteronymies

Noun

heteronymy (countable and uncountable, plural heteronymies)

1. The condition of being heteronyms; the relationship between two words with different meanings and either the same spelling or the same pronunciation but not both.
   • We find also the ancient term ārcūbālīstǎ (or with II,) which, with the aid of otosis, elision, and heteronymy, arising out of the varying use and changing shape of the weapon, will account for all the forms cited.1860, Samuel Stehman Haldeman, Analytic Orthography
2. The unrelatedness of words for items that are related by being members of a single category.
   • ...phenomenon that is here called sex heteronymy, which implies that the two sexes of animals (or human beings, for instance relatives) are referred to by words which are altogether dissimilar as in bull: cow, (aunt: uncle) Deer.1968, Nils Thun, “Germanic Words for Deer”, in Studia Neophilologica, volume 40, number 1, page 2
3. (broadly) Dissimilarity of people in a single group.
   • Differentiation simply increases, on a grander scale, the heteronymy and chaos that are the historical attribute of this society.1994, Veit Erlmann, “'Africa civilised, Africa uncivilised': local culture, world system and South African music”, in Journal of Southern African Studies, volume 20, number 2
4. The use of multiple names for a single person or thing; polyonymy
   • German dialects show a great deal of heteronymy for spring and autumn, English ones mainly for autumn. This is surprising in view of the fact that historically the English terms for 'spring' show greater heteronymy than those for 'autumn'.1994, Dieter Kastovsky, Studies in Early Modern English, →ISBN, page 93
5. A single word or symbol that can have different but related meanings.
   • Heteronymies, or propositions false in S by virtue of the meanings of the terms entering in them.1961, George Edward Moore, Mind, page 240
6. Resulting from the actions of multiple or external causal agents.
   • If we are to define emotion as distinctly representative in character, must we not ascribe emotion to all the lower animal forms only by heteronymy ?1896, Jacob Gould Schurman, James Edwin Creighton, Frank Thilly, The Philosophical Review - Volume 5, page 297