隨著科技的突飛猛進以及電腦資訊的普及，科學術語、電腦詞匯與日俱增;即使同一個字，有時意思在增加，用途也在擴大。工業或行政上的 input 和 output 和電腦上的意思，哪會完全相同?小孩時期看到在地上跑的 mouse 和現在出現在電腦旁的 mouse，形狀相似，但意思也一樣嗎?

不說特殊用語，就是天天見面的常用字，不管是名詞、形容詞、動詞或副詞，十九都是多義詞，甚至是多種詞類的，既可當名詞、動詞，又可當形容詞，甚至副詞。

關于這點，《英語詞匯：意思和用法》一文中已舉例說明，大家應該記憶猶新，不再重復。

由于一詞多義在英語詞匯的運用上非常重要，這里不厭其煩地再舉一個家喻戶曉的常用字 break，以加強我對這點的重視。

作為動詞，break 有下列 12 個常用意思：

① 打破、斷，如：(a) If you drop the cup, you will break it. (b) The rope suddenly broke.

② 違反、違約，如：(a) Don’t break the law. (b) Tom is notorious for breaking promises.

③ 傷、毀，如：(a) Tony broke Jane’s heart by not marrying her. (b) Judy dropped her watch and broke it.

④ 中斷、打斷，如：(a) The barking of the dog broke our sleep. (b) The stranger rushed in and broke our conversation.

⑤ 破曉，如：They arrived at the airport just as the day was breaking.

⑥ 放棄，如：It is hard to break the habit of smoking.

⑦ 開路，如：We sometimes saw voluntary workers help break paths in villages.

⑧ 毫無得失，如：He bought the sewing machine at $700 and sold it at the same price. He broke even on the deal.

⑨ 闖入，如：A thief broke into my neigbour’s house and ran away with some valuables.

⑩ 爆發，如：If a new world war breaks out, can you imagine the consequences?

11. 突破，如：The soldiers tried to break through the enemy’s line.

12. 停止，如：The meeting suddenly broke up.

當名詞時，break 有 5 個常見義，如下：

① 裂口：Please send for a plumber to repair the break in the water pipe.

② 拂曉：Fish mongers start work at the break of the day.

③ 吃茶點時間：A few of us have a tea-break at 11am every day.

④ 休息：There is one-hour break for lunch.

⑤ 變動：The bankrupt man has a break in his way of living.