Many English words have multiple meanings. This means that the same word, with the same spelling and pronunciation may have more than one meaning. Sometimes the meanings may be very different. This can be confusing for people learning English. You may wonder,” How do I know what the meaning is?” The best way is rely on context, illustrations, or diagrams in the text. However, if you still are not sure of the meaning, look it up. A dictionary will tell you all the meanings of any word. This posting cannot discuss every word with multiple meanings. There are simply too many of them. In this posting, however, I talk about 25 common words with multiple meanings. These are word you may see and hear in your daily life. I show you parts of speech, definitions, and example sentences for each meaning of each word.The download at the end will give you additional practice understanding words with multiple meanings.
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Below is a list of common words with multiple meanings.
B
- bank
2. bark
3. bill
4. break
5. bug
C
6. charge
7. company
8. current
D-H
9. date
10. fair
11. fast
12. fly
13. hit
J-N
14. jam
15. left
16. mine
17. nail
P-R
18. patient
19. pool
20. pupil
21. run
S-T
22. season
23. set
24. take
25. turn
You now know many common English words with multiple meanings. Often you can guess the meaning of the word through context. If that is not helpful, however, don’t hesitate to look the word up. The download will give you additional practice understanding words with multiple meanings.
You can download the practice sheet NOW!
Idioms of the day
- no picnic–This means something is difficult and not pleasant. I’m glad I moved, but making all the preparations was no picnic.
- turn a blind eye to–This means to not notice a very obvious problem. Her husband comes home drunk every night, but she turns a blind eye to his problems. She insists that he’s not an alcoholic.
Contents
- 1 What is it called when the same word has different meanings?
- 2 When a word has double meanings?
- 3 When something has more than one meaning?
- 4 What is an example of a Heteronym?
- 5 What word has the most multiple meanings?
- 6 What does it mean when someone is ambiguous?
- 7 Can you describe a person as ambiguous?
- 8 Which is the best synonym for ambiguous?
- 9 What are the three types of ambiguity?
- 10 What is the meaning of Hastile?
- 11 What’s the meaning of on ambiguously?
- 12 What are the 4 types of ambiguity?
- 13 What is transformational ambiguity?
- 14 What is pragmatic ambiguity?
- 15 How do you find the word ambiguous?
- 16 Why is English ambiguous?
- 17 What is referential ambiguity?
- 18 What is scope ambiguity?
- 19 What is the difference between syntactic and lexical ambiguity?
- 20 How scholars define syntactic ambiguity?
- 21 What is moral ambiguity?
What is it called when the same word has different meanings?
Homophones are words that sound the same but are different in meaning or spelling. Homographs are spelled the same, but differ in meaning or pronunciation. Homonyms can be either or even both. … Or the fact that there is a single word which describes these two very different types of words.
A double entendre is a phrase or figure of speech that could have two meanings or that could be understood in two different ways.
When something has more than one meaning?
adjective. open to or having several possible meanings or interpretations; equivocal: an ambiguous answer.
What is an example of a Heteronym?
For example, “row” (use oars) and “row” (argument) are heteronyms because they employ different sounds, while “mean” (signify) and “mean” (average) are not heteronyms because they are pronounced the same (these are called homonyms).
What word has the most multiple meanings?
According to Guinness World Records, the word that has the most meanings in the English language is the verb “set.” “Set” has 430 senses listed in the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which was published in 1989.
What does it mean when someone is ambiguous?
ambiguous • am-BIG-yuh-wus • adjective. 1 a : doubtful or uncertain especially from obscurity or indistinctness b : incapable of being explained, interpreted, or accounted for : inexplicable 2 : capable of being understood in two or more possible senses or ways.
Can you describe a person as ambiguous?
Ambiguous, on the other hand, isn’t a word used to describe people—though it is used to describe things people do or say. It’s used in cases where the meaning of something is not clear, often because it can be understood in more than one way: … Ambiguous has been with us since the early 16th century.
Which is the best synonym for ambiguous?
ambiguous
- equivocal, ambivalent, open to debate, open to argument, arguable, debatable.
- Delphic, cryptic, enigmatic, gnomic, paradoxical, misleading.
- obscure, unclear, vague, abstruse, puzzling, perplexing, riddling, doubtful, dubious, uncertain.
- double-edged, backhanded.
What are the three types of ambiguity?
Three types of ambiguity are categorised as potential ambiguity: lexical, syntactical, and inflective.
- Lexical Ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity is the most commonly known form of ambiguity (Reilly 1991; Walton 1996). …
- Syntactical Ambiguity. …
- Inflective Ambiguity.
What is the meaning of Hastile?
hos·tile | ˈhä-stᵊl , -ˌstī(-ə)l Essential Meaning of hostile. 1 : of or relating to an enemy They were entering hostile territory. hostile [=enemy] troops. 2 : not friendly : having or showing unfriendly feelings a hostile atmosphere/expression Her suggestions were given a hostile reception.
What’s the meaning of on ambiguously?
adjective. If you describe something as ambiguous, you mean that it is unclear or confusing because it can be understood in more than one way. This agreement is very ambiguous and open to various interpretations. ambiguously adverb. The national conference on democracy ended ambiguously.
What are the 4 types of ambiguity?
These four types, namely, lexical ambiguity, structural ambiguity and scope ambiguity and a controversial type – the combination of lexical and structural ambiguity all have their own properties although it is not easy to distinguish them very clearly sometimes.
What is transformational ambiguity?
Thus, transformational ambiguity is a subcategory of grammatical ambiguity. Another Chomskian example mentioned by Lyons is: the shooting of the hunters. This is the same case as the God-example: it is unclear whether the hunters are subject or object in this phrase.
What is pragmatic ambiguity?
Pragmatic Ambiguity can be defined as the words which have multiple interpretations. Pragmatic Ambiguity arises when the meaning of words of a sentence is not specific; it concludes different meanings.
How do you find the word ambiguous?
Context Clues
When you encounter ambiguous words in reading passages, stop and read the sentence again. Once you understand the context, it will make it easier to identify the meaning of the ambiguous word. A homonym is a word that has the same pronunciation or spelling as another word but has a different meaning.
Why is English ambiguous?
What is referential ambiguity?
In referential ambiguity, we make reference to a certain entity but realize that the entity (ies) we are pointing to is more than one. SOURCES OF REFERENTIAL AMBGUITY. Referential ambiguity can result because of the presence of pronouns. For example, The boy told his father the theft.
What is scope ambiguity?
A scope ambiguity is an ambiguity that occurs when two quantifiers or similar expressions can take scope over each other in different ways in the meaning of a sentence.
What is the difference between syntactic and lexical ambiguity?
Lexical ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meanings for a single word. … It differs from syntactic ambiguity, which is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a sentence or sequence of words. Lexical ambiguity is sometimes used deliberately to create puns and other types of wordplay.
How scholars define syntactic ambiguity?
Syntactic ambiguity, also called structural ambiguity, amphiboly or amphibology, is a situation where a sentence may be interpreted in more than one way due to ambiguous sentence structure.
What is moral ambiguity?
Definition of moral ambiguity
: a lack of certainty about whether something is right or wrong.
Homonyms, or multiple-meaning words, are words that have the same spelling and usually sound alike, but have different meanings (e.g. dog bark, tree bark).
Simply so Why is tear and tear spelled the same? Heteronyms are a type of homograph, which is a word that is spelled the same as another word but has a different meaning. … Related words are tears, teared, tearing, The word tear is derived from the Old English word, tear. Advertisement. To tear (tare) means to rend something into pieces, to rip apart, to make a hole.
What words have 3 meanings? 10 English Words with More than One Meaning
- Mine.
- Interest.
- Date.
- Engage.
- Leave.
- Novel.
- Park.
- Play.
also What words have the most meanings? According to Guinness World Records, the word that has the most meanings in the English language is the verb “set.” “Set” has 430 senses listed in the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which was published in 1989.
What words are spelled the same but sound different?
Homophones are a type of homonym that also sound alike and have different meanings, but have different spellings. HOMOGRAPHS are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. Heteronyms are a type of homograph that are also spelled the same and have different meanings, but sound different.
What does Tair mean? TAIR
| Acronym | Definition |
|---|---|
| TAIR | The Arabidopsis Information Resource |
| TAIR | Test Assembly Inspection Record (US NASA) |
| TAIR | Texas Association for the Improvement of Reading (est. 1947) |
| TAIR | Total Army Involvement in Recruiting |
How do we spell 10?
Spelling Numbers
| Cardinal number | Ordinal number | |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | eight | eighth |
| 9 | nine | ninth |
| 10 | ten | tenth |
| 11 | eleven | eleventh |
What is Tearup? Definition of tear up
transitive verb. 1 : to damage, remove, or effect an opening in tore up the street to lay a new water main. 2 : to perform or compete with great success on, in, or against couples tearing up the dance floor a batter who’s tearing up the league.
What words have 4 meanings?
Homonyms are words that have the same spelling and pronunciation, but different meanings.
…
There are many examples of homonyms.
- arm. I have an ant bite on my arm. …
- bark. I hope her dog doesn’t bark when I knock on the door. …
- clip. …
- crane. …
- date. …
- dough. …
- drop. …
- engaged.
What 3 letter word has the most meanings? So Far One three-letter word does much of the heavy lifting in the English language. The little word “run” — in its verb form alone — has 645 distinct meanings.
What is the most polysemous word?
form. The most polysemous word in the OED is set.
What word has the most E’s in it? Ethylenediaminetetraacetate has 7 e’s. It is a crystalline acid with formula C10H16N2O8 and is used as an antidote to metal poisoning, is an anticoagulant, and is used in the manufacture of certain industrial reagents.
What is the least used English word?
alsike (n., a clover native to Europe) chersonese (n., a peninsula) cacomistle (n., a carnivorous, raccoon-like animal) yogh (n., Middle English letter, used to represent the “y” sound)
What words are spelled backwards and forwards?
The most familiar palindromes in English are character-unit palindromes. The characters read the same backward as forward. Some examples of palindromic words are redivider, deified, civic, radar, level, rotor, kayak, reviver, racecar, madam, and refer.
What is an example of a Heteronym? For example, “row” (use oars) and “row” (argument) are heteronyms because they employ different sounds, while “mean” (signify) and “mean” (average) are not heteronyms because they are pronounced the same (these are called homonyms). Most heteronyms come in pairs.
What is a RAIT? rait. RAIT (Redundant Arrays of Independent Tape) are the tape drive equivalent of RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks) for disk drives. RAIT is sometimes called “tape RAID”.
How do you write No 1 or No 1?
How do I spell 1000? If you have saved 1000 dollars, then you can write, “I have just saved One Thousand dollars.” One Thousand is the cardinal number word of 1000 which denotes a quantity.
…
Problem Statements:
| How to Write 1000 in Words? | One Thousand |
|---|---|
| Is 1000 an Odd Number? | No |
What is 0 called?
“Zero” is the usual name for the number 0 in English. In British English “nought” is also used. In American English “naught” is used occasionally for zero, but (as with British English) “naught” is more often used as an archaic word for nothing. … In certain contexts, zero and nothing are interchangeable, as is “null”.
What is teardown? 1a : to cause to decompose or disintegrate. b : vilify, denigrate trying to tear down his reputation. 2 : to take apart : disassemble tear down an engine. Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More About teardown.
Is tear up cry?
to get tears in your eyes, so that you almost start to cry, because you are experiencing strong emotion: She teared up as the award was presented to her.
Is tearing crying? 2 tears plural : an act of crying I burst into tears. … 2 : to wound or injure by or as if by tearing : lacerate Use an ointment where you tore the skin.
Asked
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7 Answers
answered Jun 9, 2011 at 1:43
Kit Z. Fox♦Kit Z. Fox
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2
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+1. This seems to be the clearest term for what the questioner requests — it doesn’t have the extraneous connotations that some others have (humour in the case of pun, deliberate deceit or evasiveness in the case of equivocation), and it also covers all examples, unlike homonym, homophone, etc., which are each rather more restrictive.
Jun 9, 2011 at 3:40
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Actually, we may need something like bi-/disemous or ambisimous.
Oct 14, 2012 at 14:43
A pun:
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect.
Wikipedia
Perhaps more specifically a homonymic pun, which relies on words that are both homographs (same spelling, different meaning) and homophones (sound alike), e.g., «Being in politics is just like playing golf:
. . . you are trapped in one bad lie after another.»
answered Jun 9, 2011 at 1:29
CallithumpianCallithumpian
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+1 Paronomasia is exactly the pun-itive measure I had in mind.
Jun 9, 2011 at 2:14
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Pun seems to imply humorous plays on words. Is there a word extending to all?
Jun 9, 2011 at 3:09
Equivocation could work.
Equivocation is classified as both a formal and informal logical fallacy. It is the misleading use of a term with more than one meaning or sense (by glossing over which meaning is intended at a particular time). It generally occurs with polysemic words.
Wikipedia
answered Jun 9, 2011 at 1:41
NRafNRaf
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Are you looking for :
Equivocation
There is also:
Double Entendre
answered Jun 9, 2011 at 1:59
ThursagenThursagen
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0
ambiguity (or ambiguous) and its associated figure of speech amphiboly capture the «multiple meanings at once». Both can apply to a single word or to an entire phrase or sentence.
answered Jun 9, 2011 at 17:38
MitchMitch
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I think this is the best, because it is not confined to words. A sentence might be ambiguous despite none of its words being so. For example, The boy saw the man with the telescope can mean either that the man had the telescope, and the boy saw him; alternatively, it can mean that the boy, by means of the telescope, saw the man. Both meanings arise from the same set of words, without changing the meanings of the words. It is how the words combine which determines which meaning ultimately arises.
Jun 10, 2011 at 1:05
Bisemous.
It really means «with two meanings».
RegDwigнt
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answered Oct 14, 2012 at 14:45
KrisKris
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0
you do it ostensibly
«So maybe there’s a legal convention
concerning how definitions such as
this are to be
circumscribed/overridden/whatever by
the common English meaning however
vague by comparison of the term
ostensibly being defined?» — The
Volokh Conspiracy » Hate Crimes and
Double Jeopardy:
I just realized that if your word has at least two meanings at the same time that you might be referring to something ironic
–adjective Both coincidental and contradictory in a humorous or poignant and extremely improbable way.It is ironic that Einstein, who was
such a revolutionary young man, was
reduced to irrational denial of
quantum mechanics in his later years.
answered Jun 9, 2011 at 3:41
6
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Is this a joke? If not, “ostensibly” here means as much as “allegedly”. As in, “it’s claimed that this term … is being defined (but it really isn’t)”.
Jun 9, 2011 at 10:45
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@Konrad the question was «How could one put, in a single word, language that has multiple meanings at once?» How would you do it? I’d do it … ostensibly
Jun 9, 2011 at 11:58
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@pageman: ‘ostensibly’ does imply that there is an alternative meaning, but it is primarily about the situation rather than the word or language.
Jun 9, 2011 at 17:34
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@Mitch the question was how «does one» do it, right?
Jun 10, 2011 at 15:34
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@pageman: that is a subtle reading of the intention of the OP that the OP probably didn’t intend. ‘Ostensible’ is about a surface meaning, but on reflection there is another meaning (It is not about the process of -inducing- the multiple meanings , the act of constructing the utterance with more than one meaning (which is what I think you’re getting at). In that case it would be prevaricating, equivocating, or dissembling, with the added connotation of ‘with the intent to deceive’ (which ‘ostensible’ doesn’t have).
Jun 10, 2011 at 16:25
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Every language has words that look and sound the same but mean different things. Russian is no exception: many Russian words have two or even more different meanings.
Click to enlarge the image. Drawing by Niyaz Karim
The most frequently cited examples of homonyms in the
Russian language are the words kosa (коса) and klyuch (ключ)
The word kosa means a braid and also, in another
meaning, a scythe. Hence the comic play on words in the expression devushka
s kosoi (девушка с косой), which can mean both a young woman with braided
hair and the Grim Reaper. In addition, kosa also means a spit of land
sticking out into the sea.
Klyuch means a key that you
use to open and close the door but also a key to a cipher (klyuch ot shifra,
ключ от шифра), a clue, and a clef (e.g. a skripichny klyuch (скрипичный
ключ) is a treble clef). It also forms part of the Russian word for a spanner, gayechny klyuch (гаечный
ключ).
The adjective klyuchevoi (ключевой) is used in the same sense as
the English ‘key’ in key element, key player, key moment, etc. In a separate
meaning, a klyuch is also a spring, a source of clean, fresh, cool
water.
The word mat (мат) has three completely different
meanings. First, it is the chess term checkmate. Second, a mat, especially a
gym mat (gimnastichesky mat, гимнастический мат). Third, and most commonly
these days, it is foul language, swear words.
Under a new Russian law that came into effect on July 1, the
use of foul language is banned on television, in films, books, in the media, as
well as in the theater and other public performances. The boundaries of what
constitutes foul language are quite blurred (some words are considered more
acceptable than others).
The debate of what should fall under «the
banned» foul language has been going on for a long time. At present,
experts have concluded that the ban should cover four basic roots (rude names
for male and female genitals, sexual intercourse and a prostitute) and all of
their derivatives.
The word klass (класс) in Russian has approximately
the same wealth of meanings as «class» in English. In a school or
university, it means a classroom and a group of students who study together, as
well as the entire cohort of students in a particular grade.
In another sense,
it means a level of quality, as in first-class, second-class, third-class. In
yet another meaning, a class is a division of people in society according to
their social status, e.g. working class, middle class.
The word post (пост) has until recently been used in
two senses: the place where a soldier, guard or other person has been told to
remain (as in guard post, storozhevoi post (сторожевой пост), which
later evolved into meaning a position in a company or organization, usually one
that involves responsibility.
The other meaning of the word is religious: a
fast (the derivative verb is postitsya (поститься). In recent years, the
word post has developed a new meaning that is to do with the advent of
blogs and social network sites. It has even created a new verb, zapostit
(запостить), meaning to post something on the internet.
Another word that has acquired an additional meaning as a
result of borrowing from English is luk (лук). Traditionally, luk
had two distinct meanings in Russian: an onion and a bow (as in a bow and arrows).
Recently, in youth slang it has begun to be used in the sense of a person’s
looks.
The word val (вал) has even more meanings. It can
mean an earthen wall, hence the names of some old streets in Moscow, e.g. Zemlyanoi
Val (Земляной вал) or Koroviy Val (Коровий вал). At sea, a val is a big
wave (e.g. a famous painting by great Russian seascape artist Ivan Aivazovsky
is called Devyatiy Val (“Девятый вал»).
It also means a shaft, as
in a drive shaft. Finally, in economics, it means the gross output of a
company, an industry or a country as whole.
Read more: The 10 most well-known Russian words>>>
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