What is polysemy?

Shared vocabulary does not guarantee shared meaning.

Example: Two engineers agree the system needs a better 'architecture.' One means microservices decomposition. The other means cleaner module boundaries within the monolith. They nod along in the meeting, build in opposite directions for two weeks, then discover the divergence in code review. Same word. Different mental models. No one lied or was careless — the word simply activated different meanings in different heads.

This concept is part of Context Sensitivity in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for context sensitivity.