linguaholic Posted August 23, 2013 Report Share Posted August 23, 2013 The English word with the most meanings / definitionsI am wondering what English word has the most different meanings/definitions. My vote would probably go for the verb "to get". If you include the phrasal verbs, this verb has an incredible amount of meanings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsaacChase Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 I hate to say this, but I think the F word is the English word with the most meanings. It's definitely the word with the most diversity of uses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pojokers Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 I'm going to have to agree with the F word haha. Besides that though I think "mean" is a good one. 1)mean- the average of a group of numbers2)mean- unkind or malicious3)mean-convey definitionI'm sure there are better words. I can't think of any without looking them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraM Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 This made me very curious and I did look it up. The winner is "set" with 464 definitions! I was amazed that a single word would have so many. But there are others with hundreds of meanings / definitions: "run," "go," "take" and "stand" are among them. This is really fascinating. The full details are in this article:http://puzzles.about.com/library/weekly/blmosdef.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguaholic Posted August 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 yes, "set" has a lot of definitions / meanings. I also came across this when I was googling for the right answer to this question. I am still quite surprised that some people here reckon that the f-Word has the most meanings. It does have quite a lot of meanings and is used in many occasions but still, compared to others, the use still seems rather limited to me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraM Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 I am still quite surprised that some people here reckon that the f-Word has the most meanings. It does have quite a lot of meanings and is used in many occasions but still, compared to others, the use still seems rather limited to me!Yes, I found this amusing as well. I think it's because people use the F-word for all parts of speech -- noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc. --that it must seem to mean so many different things! Multiple definitions of common English words is one of the challenges in learning the language, especially when the definitions seem so random: 1)mean- the average of a group of numbers2)mean- unkind or malicious3)mean-convey definitionThis is a perfect example. Really it makes no sense that the same word that is defined as "unkind" is also a a rather impassive term used in mathematics. So to me, it's not just amazing that so many words have so many different meanings but that sometimes there is nothing -- e.g. common Latin root -- that connects the various meanings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cefmac Posted August 26, 2013 Report Share Posted August 26, 2013 You're right LauraM, "set" does have the most definitions. It spans several pages in the average dictionary. I'm not sure I can think of that many meanings for it off the top of my head though: a group or collection; when a liquid dries or solidifies; a badger's home...I can't think of any more, but there's obviously hundreds of definitions I'm forgetting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mh57 Posted August 27, 2013 Report Share Posted August 27, 2013 I would have said the F word as well until I saw how people had posted about 'set'. Looked into it and 'set' wins by a landslide! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eudora13 Posted September 1, 2013 Report Share Posted September 1, 2013 There are some words which have polar opposite meanings... I don't know why but the word "gay" popped into my head when I read this thread. Once upon a time 'gay' meant being happy and jovial, now it means, well you know what it means. Then there are these words - bitch, vixen, fowl, ass. I wonder what these poor animals ever did to have their name linked with such negative meanings! The word 'fish' has many meanings: the animal, to fish out or to draw out, 'oh fish!' - a swear word, fishy or something not quite right.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GetFresh Posted September 4, 2013 Report Share Posted September 4, 2013 The word "set" has a lot of meanings. Another word that I can think of that has a lot of meanings is "charge". You can get charged for a crime, set of an explosive charge, or even take charge. There's probably so many more than i'm missing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monox D. I-Fly Posted July 25, 2018 Report Share Posted July 25, 2018 On 8/24/2013 at 4:02 PM, LauraM said: This made me very curious and I did look it up. The winner is "set" with 464 definitions! I was amazed that a single word would have so many. But there are others with hundreds of meanings / definitions: "run," "go," "take" and "stand" are among them. This is really fascinating. The full details are in this article: http://puzzles.about.com/library/weekly/blmosdef.htm All along this time, I thought "run" was already winning with its 151 meanings... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguaholic Posted July 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2018 7 hours ago, Monox D. I-Fly said: All along this time, I thought "run" was already winning with its 151 meanings... 151 meanings....not too bad either :=) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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