In linguistics, a word sense is one of the meanings of a word. Words are in two sets: a large set with multiple meanings (word senses) and a small set with only one meaning (word sense). For example, a dictionary may have over 50 different senses of the word "play", each of these having a different meaning based on the context of the word's usage in a sentence, as follows: We went to see the play Romeo and Juliet at the theater. The coach devised a great play that put the visiting team on the defensive. The children went out to play in the park.