Home Forums Chat Forum Which English word has the most meanings?

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  • Which English word has the most meanings?
  • CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    I started thinking that “nick” was good (steal, form, notch) but there must be more! So, what one word has the most meanings?

    mogrim
    Full Member

    Get. At least if you start counting phrasal verbs.

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    set- 50 odd iirc

    Mackem
    Full Member

    Was always told that “set” was the one word with the most.

    Certainly “****” is the most flexibile.

    j_me
    Free Member

    IIRC its “Soon”
    Edit – No actually I think “soon” has the most thesaurus entries. Which isn’t the same.

    headfirst
    Free Member

    ‘fine’. It means something different every time my wife says it.

    bassspine
    Free Member

    rose/rows/roes is the one with the most meanings if you allow for different spellings of the same sounding word.

    BigJohn
    Full Member

    I was going to say rose too. But i tend to agree with fine. Yes also comes close.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    STW QI night or something?

    The traditional answer is indeed ‘set’.

    muppet4
    Free Member

    Like headfirst said but my wifes is maybe! 😉

    oreetmon
    Free Member

    agree with mac, not stictly what th OP is on about but its got to be **** (im sure you can work it out) it can be put before/after anything,, good, bad, mad, ace, mental, silly, weird, cheap, expensive, american etcetcetcetcetc.

    i really dont like using the F word as its ignorant, hints at you being unintelligent and their are so many better descript words but i do and i will as im common 😀

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    Bollocks is pretty versatile. Noun, verb, adverb, adjective, exclamation, superlative, diminutive etc.

    Stood the test of time, as well.

    Leviticus xxii, 24: “Al beeste, that … kitt and taken a wey the ballokes is, ye shulen not offre to the Lord.

    GEDA
    Free Member

    It is a bit of a difficult question as for example the word think. It can be:Your opinion, a thought, a belief or something you imagine which in another language may by all different words (Coming from learning Swedish here) and as the Inuit have loads of words for snow does that mean blanket words like snow have the most meanings? I suppose they are all variations on a theme but they are still specific meanings.

    geoffj
    Full Member

    1. Set
    2. Fine

    bassspine
    Free Member

    I was surprised: The word with the most meanings in English is the verb ‘set’, with 430 senses listed in the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989. The word commands the longest entry in the dictionary at 60,000 words, or 326,000 characters.

    guinness

    CHB
    Full Member

    “OK”
    Has many meanings to over 25 year olds,but to teens it’s an entire language.

    therealhoops
    Free Member

    Angry – that’s pretty meanings

    Ewan
    Free Member

    Surely it’s ****? That’s got lots and lots of meanings depending on context…

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