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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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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. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. Did you ________________ the button?

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. cold — not warm
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. file — a line of people
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. press — newspapers
  9. cold — an illness
  10. file — a tool
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. wind — moving air
  13. wind — moving air
  14. fork — in a road
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. file — a document
  18. wake — a trail
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. press — a publisher
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. stem — to come from
  23. stem — a stem cell
  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