this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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https://www.vernonmorningstar.com/news/morning-start-the-english-word-with-the-most-definitions-is-set/
430 diffrent meanings
264 as a verb https://www.oed.com/dictionary/set_v1?tab=factsheet#23402997
American here, I'm going to challenge myself to remember as many as I can.
Set: A group of things that go together.
Set: Letting a dessert cool in the fridge
Set: A stage for a play or film
Set: A command to put something somewhere
Set: A part of Tennis
...
5/704 isn't so bad, right?
Edit: looking up the definitions shows a lot of sub-definitions that essentially have the same meaning. I don't think it's appropriate to say that the word has 435 meanings when "set a course" and "set a fire" are basically "start a thing," yet they're listed as different definitions. The are many many of these cases even just on Google's definition blurb.
But I'm no dictionary expert so...
Yeah some do seem the same, but thats possilbe also a bias from knowning the language.