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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 120 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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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. Did you ________________ the button?
  2. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. That was ________________ to happen.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  12. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  13. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  21. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. stock — a soup base
  3. stock — goods
  4. bound — certain
  5. field — farmland
  6. bound — tied together
  7. chair — a leader
  8. field — for sport
  9. press — a publisher
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. chair — to sit on
  12. deal — an agreement
  13. deal — a big deal
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. file — a document
  16. deal — to handle
  17. file — a tool
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. bat — the animal
  20. bound — obliged
  21. press — newspapers
  22. stock — shares
  23. field — a subject
  24. file — a line of people

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