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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  7. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  15. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. Did you ________________ the button?

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. cold — not warm
  3. march — the month
  4. pit — a hole
  5. content — happy
  6. pit — in a race
  7. net — for catching
  8. net — in sport
  9. craft — boats
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. game — a match
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. march — the month
  14. craft — a skill
  15. craft — a handicraft
  16. cold — an illness
  17. game — wild animals
  18. march — music
  19. press — newspapers
  20. press — a publisher
  21. content — the amount
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. net — after costs
  24. press — to push

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com