= Word sense
A <word sense> is a particular meaning distinguished for a word or lexical entry within an explicit analysis. The same spelling can support different interpretations, and a <lexical database> may represent those interpretations separately. A sense inventory is therefore a set of analytical distinctions, rather than a count of written forms.
For example, `bank` can refer to a financial institution or a river margin. The context in `the bank approved the loan` favors a different interpretation from `the boat reached the bank`. <WordNet> organizes senses through <synsets> and semantic relationships; its documentation explicitly distinguishes relations between meanings from associations between word forms.<WordNet: A Lexical Database for English>[About WordNet, synsets and relations between senses]{ref}
In an original annotation task, suppose two readers agree on the sense labels for three of four uses. Their observed agreement is $3/4$, but the result depends on which distinctions the inventory requires. Merging two fine distinctions can increase agreement without improving every downstream task. <Word sense> analysis consequently needs both context and documented granularity.
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