Words with Multiple Meanings

In the US, today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In spirit of celebrating our world’s uniqueness, we look at how people read or hear a word and understand it differently than originally intended.
Many words contain multiple definitions, and sentences provide the context. A simple example: My daughter was watching a fashion reality show on TV when I caught one line in the captions, “It’s not safe.” Perplexed, I asked her if the designer made something that would not be safe to wear (thinking of needles sticking out and poking the model).
The speaker’s saying that meant the designer was taking a risk with the design. How many misunderstandings have we had because of such mix ups? When people ask me how much I hear with my hearing aids, I explain that it helps me distinguish words that look the same on the lips like “mom,” “pop,” and “mop.” But if I were to close my eyes, I’d hear a word, but not know which word.
But sometimes even with a complete sentence — we misunderstand what the speaker means. It happens to me a lot, but usually I misread one word or two for another. Had a few embarrassing situations when I did that.
All we can do is be aware of our conversations and communications. An off-track response gives a hint there may have been a misunderstanding.
P.S. I am using categories again. So those who prefer to find past entries by categories have the option (well, I need to categorize my thousands of posts first). For fans of tags, those are still here.