Why are synonyms a thing?

Question

I said “multiple” in front of my 4 year old and he asked what it meant. I explained, “it can mean many, several, a lot, bunches” etc.

After explaining to him the meaning I realized— why do we have different words that practically mean the same thing?

In: Other

Answer 1

English is a mishmash of different languages (for the most part Native Celtic, Saxon German, Norse Danish, Medieval French and various English colonial loanwords) so often Synonyms are just the same word from different language roots.