This introduction provides an overview of the theory of semantic change and illustrates the main forms of meaning development with numerous examples from Old High German to the present day. It informs about the current state of historical semantics and the fundamental aspects of its development. The text offers an overview of the problems and methods of analyzing meaning changes and outlines a theory of semantic change. The detailed presentation of selected analyses of meaning developments from Old High German to the present concretizes the theoretical and methodological questions. A standard work in a new edition.