How do words get their meanings? Why does the string of letters (and sounds) "d-o-g" mean "dog" and "c-a-t" mean "cat"?

For the most part, meanings are conventions: A group of people (like speakers of a given language) agree that "d-o-g" refers to one type of animal and "c-a-t" refers to another. Other than a few words like "woof" or "ding dong" that sound like what they mean, there’s usually no inherent relation between the sounds and the objects they denote. That’s why "dog" is "chien" in French and "gǒu" in Mandarin Chinese.

Because of this, it’s not uncommon for one word to have two meanings. Consider some holiday-related examples: A "log" can refer to what’s in the fireplace or to the ledger book you keep that indicates how much you’re spending on the holidays. And "toboggan" is either a sled or, for speakers of some U.S. dialects, a knitted winter hat.

There are even words with two opposite meanings. The........

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