Final answer:
The correct answer is Polysemy. Polysemy refers to a situation in which a word has multiple meanings that are related and have at least one meaning in common.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct answer is Polysemy.
Polysemy refers to a situation in which a word has multiple meanings that are related and have at least one meaning in common. This means that even though different senses exist, there is still some overlap in their meanings. For example, the word 'bank' can refer to a financial institution or the side of a river, but both meanings involve the concept of something related to money or finance.
In contrast, synonymy (option b) refers to words with similar or identical meanings. Hyponymy (option c) refers to the relationship between more general and more specific terms, where the more specific terms are examples or subtypes of the more general terms. Homonymy (option d) refers to words that have the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings, such as 'bat' (an animal) and 'bat' (a sports equipment used in baseball).