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Context is crucial ! 
The World of Words
An effect quite analogous to that we have observed with the teal color, the two lines, and the water temperature, above, happens also to words.
Have you ever wondered why is it that, when you open a dictionary, you will usually find many "definitions" or so-called "synonyms" for words that you look up? Does it mean that, whatever the word at stake, it will bear as many different meanings as the "definitions" or "synonyms" that the dictionary will offer?
Well, once more, yes and no! 
...
... You see, words are rarely used in isolation. We normally use them in sentences, and the sentences are uttered or written within yet larger contexts. (A sentence is a basic context for a word.)
So, you are probably beginning to make the analogy between the word we are discussing and the teal color, the two lines, and the water temperature, above.
Yes, the dictionary will often offer a number of "meanings" for a word because of the different contexts in which that word is commonly employed.
In different contexts, the meaning of a word will vary a little, just as we have seen happen to the teal color, to the two lines, and to the water temperature, above. In extreme cases, a change in context may result in a substantial change in meaning, regarding the very same word.
Puns and jokes often rely on the characterstic just discussed. In jokes, once a context has been established, a previously used word is re-employed – just this second time, an unexpected and contrasting context is sudenly evoked. Puns, in turn, are usually proper for one context, while they symultaneously signal another.
Great writers make very creative and delightful use of the relativity inherent also to words. I'll share a couple of examples, both cited from memory (so, they may not be totally accurate).
| Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet: |
James Joyce, in Ulysses: |
"And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss." |
"Jesus said: Lazarus, come forth! But Lazarus came fifth, and lost the job." |
Poetry is also based on the same principle, though in quite a diferent way, as it invites the use of multiple contexts.
Here's an illustration, the last two lines of a poem by Robert Frost, also cited from memory:
| "And miles to go before I sleep, | ||
| And miles to go before I sleep..." |
A change in context also allowed us (in the very first example) to figure out that a traffic light was out of order. That example was not the case of a variation in context, but rather the case of our coming across an unusual or non-expected context. Accordingly, there had to be something unusual about that traffic light at stake.
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