Abstract
This article explores the linguistic phenomenon of polysemy in the English language, where a single word carries multiple related meanings. It presents a theoretical overview of polysemy, its distinguishing features, and mechanisms such as metaphor and metonymy that give rise to semantic expansion. The study analyzes different types of polysemous words and contrasts polysemy with homonymy to highlight their semantic distinctions. The research also emphasizes the role of polysemy in communication, language teaching, and artificial intelligence. Findings show that polysemy enriches lexical flexibility and is a key feature in semantic evolution.