How many meanings can a word have

If you think about it, in everyday speech a person uses an awfully small number of words that describe only those concepts that you have to deal with every day. However, it is enough to read Pasternak's only poem to understand how much more complicated the language is that we are used to seeing it. So, for example, often we don’t think about how many meanings a single word can have.

First of all, it is worth calculating the commonly used value, the most obvious. Everything here would seem to be simple - the brush remains a brush. But without clarification or context, one can get confused here - does the hand or artist’s brush mean?

In addition, phraseologically related meanings are often attributed to the word. One can argue with this, because the phrase: "Go through the woods" still implies walking. However, some experts take into account these positions when calculating ambiguity.

A word can have a lost or distorted meaning. So, the concept of “adequate” today is used mainly as an indicator of normality: “Adequate, reasonable person”. Although etymologically this use is completely incorrect, the term has mathematical roots and implies equality, comparability. "They are adequate to each other."

Do not forget that words have highly specialized meanings. So, a “tree” in 95% of cases should be perceived as a plant consisting of a trunk and a crown - and only a narrow layer of the population can think about an undirected graph of a special structure. By the way, the word "graph" in the previous sentence can be completely misunderstood for the same reason.

Do not forget about the words that can be broken into pieces, finding the original meaning. This technique is often used by poets, trying to choose the most capacious word for any situation. So, “shamelessness” is used more as an insult to grandmothers on benches, while, etymologically, “a person who is not ashamed” does not always commit something criminal. In some situations, the word may be a compliment.

Having calculated all possible options, we can say that almost any word, on average, has about ten meanings, depending on the context, time and person who uses the word. The record holder in the Russian language is the verb "go", which has a little less than 40 uses. But this figure, if you look, is ridiculous - because, for example, in English, “set” has more than 100 meanings.