For example, if you say that “feed” isn’t a real word because there is a better way to say “issued someone a fee,” but the real word is “feed” as in “to provide with nourishment,” what would that error in judgment be called?
For example, if you say that “feed” isn’t a real word because there is a better way to say “issued someone a fee,” but the real word is “feed” as in “to provide with nourishment,” what would that error in judgment be called?
I think you’re essentially confusing homonyms (or forgetting one of them). A homonym is “One of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning, such as bank (embankment) and bank (place where money is kept).”
Also, it’s kind of funny that “feed” as in “issued someone a fee” isn’t an accepted word when “fine” is (which is also a homonym :)