Overloaded expression

In computer science, especially the languages Ada and C++, overloaded expression means that an ambiguous operator expression can only be understood based on the context: see overloading.

In human linguistics, the meaning of a word in a sentence is only clear by its context and usage.

For example:

They saw the wood.

In this case, the word saw is an overloaded expression meaning the past tense of to see and is not intended to mean the wood cutting tool. However, in this case, it is not clear if that is what is meant without context. Instances such as this are extremely difficult for computer translators to decipher, resulting in some common errors.