Not the worst example for Japanese. The verb kakeru 掛ける is very common and has ~25 different meanings. This is before you count the other verbs also pronounced as kakeru such as 翔ける、賭ける etc
It can be argued that most of the different meanings arise from different contexts and how the speakers associate that particular word to different uses. When an English speaker uses the word save, it can mean either “save a person from danger”, “save a computer file”, and many others, which can have different meaning-translations to other languages.
Not the worst example for Japanese. The verb kakeru 掛ける is very common and has ~25 different meanings. This is before you count the other verbs also pronounced as kakeru such as 翔ける、賭ける etc
How many definitions does the English word “set” have?
And “get”!
It can be argued that most of the different meanings arise from different contexts and how the speakers associate that particular word to different uses. When an English speaker uses the word save, it can mean either “save a person from danger”, “save a computer file”, and many others, which can have different meaning-translations to other languages.