English words with three or more completely unrelated meanings

Factual Questions
21

You might need to be a physicist to define ‘right-as-in-chirality’ without resorting to recursion.

22

I think they almost certainly are, as you can see from the German cognates “er biss” (he bit) and “ein Bisschen” (a bit). If I am correct, a “bit” is originally a piece bitten off.

One example of three-way unrelated meanings is:
pen
(1) A writing instrument
(2) An area in which animals are held
(3) (slang) A place where convicted criminals are held (short for “penitentiary”)

There are other meanings too but they are related to (1) and (2).

How about:
scale
(1) to climb
(2) a device for weighing or measuring
(3) a plate on the skin of a fish or snake

A thought occurs to me. Is it possible that English spelling was standardised in such a way as to distinguish unrelated homophones by different spelling? For example, “hare” and “hair” are standardised on different spellings. If so, this would explain the surprising lack of examples that satisfy the OP.

23

Although, the widespread adoption of meaning 3 was probably influenced by meaning 2.

I suppose if one wanted to stretch the meaning of “word”, one could find acronyms or initialisms used for completely different things, in different contexts.

24

How about fast?

Fast - adjective meaning “moving quickly”
fast - verb meaning “to refrain from eating”
fast - adjective meaning “steady” as in “hold fast your positions”

I still think light works. Those meanings I gave probably are completely unrelated, right?

25

There might be some cases of this, but usually the different spellings come from different etymologies, and often, in fact, at one time the words were not homophones. The pronunciation changed, but the spelling didn’t.

26

Does a drill “bit” come from biting into material?

27

Since the words are supposed to be unrelated, I don’t see any need for them to be pronounced the same. And in that case:

tear - separate something into pieces
tear - run fast
tear - a drop from your eye

28

Check:
A temporary loss of the scent in hunting
To examine
The bill in the restaurant
A pattern

Fuck:
To destroy
To have sex
To bother
(as an) exclamation

I still deserve a prize. :frowning:

29

Aren’t the first two related? Because to ‘tear’ (run fast), you are ‘tearing up’ the ground.

30

To help with searching, the word for what the OP describes is a homonym. A true homonym is a word that is spelled and pronounced the same, but with a different meaning and etymology.

31

fair - pale skin
fair - free from bias
fair - a grand outdoor party with SNO CONES!
fair - large/grand
fair - likely
fair - straight

…and many more.

Prize yet?

32

I’ve only seen that in Roadrunner cartoons.

33

ring - a sound
ring - circular
ring - I’m thinking of a group of people, but that may be related to “circle”
Technically, there is no word with more than one meaning. There may be two words that are spelled the same and sound the same, but they are two distinct words.

state - a political entity
state - as a matter of fact
state - as a part of time
(state is debatable)

34

It depends on what the OP means by “distinct” meaning, but etymologically, all those meanings of fair come from two sources. Otherwise, isn’t “set” or “make” the usual “word with most meanings”?

35

Have you ever tried googling ‘recursion’ ? - it’s quite interesting.

36

There’s one that almost everyone in this thread has used already…

Mean:
an average/mid-level value
to intend/signify
common/petty/harsh
There’s also a regional meaning of comfort/pity/moaning/lamenting/complaining
Each of those has an independent etymology, so they’re unrelated words.

37

I’m pretty sure there are anatomical references we could use, given our basic asymmetry - such as “the side the average human liver is on when you’re cutting from the front and the head is on top” or somesuch

although that does leave you with “front” and “top” to define, although those could be defined behaviourally

38

Rack has good number of distinct etymologies:

  1. Framework of bars - from Middle Dutch rac, rec, recke
  2. Ruin or destruction; wrack - from Middle English wrak
  3. A horse’s gait - origin unknown, possible from rock, or from French racquassure
  4. A group of drifting clouds, from Middle English rak, reck(e); also possibly from Old English racu, “cloud”
  5. To draw off from the lees (like in beermaking or winemaking), from Old French, compare to raqué
  6. The neck portion of mutton, goat, or veal - origin unknown
39

*Foil *has three distinct definitions.

  1. to prevent the success of; frustrate; balk:
    1250–1300; Middle English foilen, < Anglo-French foller, Old French fuler to trample, full (cloth).

  2. metal in the form of very thin sheets: aluminum foil.
    1350–1400; Middle English foille, foil < Old French fuelle, fueille, foille (< Latin folia leaves), fuel, fueil, foil (< Latin folium leaf, blade)

  3. a flexible four-sided rapier having a blunt point.
    1585–95; origin uncertain
    Some other definitions appear to be connected to meaning # 2

  • a person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast: The straight man was an able foil to the comic.

  • Architecture . an arc or a rounded space between cusps, as in the tracery of a window or other ornamentation.

  • An Aerofoil

40

I daresay that 3 derives from 1. No cite, as I pulled the reasoning straight from my sphincter.