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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. The King held a masked ________________.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  19. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  20. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. press — to push
  3. wind — moving air
  4. bark — to shout
  5. cold — an illness
  6. tube — the underground
  7. land — to come down
  8. tube — a container
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. wind — moving air
  11. ball — a dance
  12. net — in sport
  13. land — a country
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. land — ground
  16. bark — of a tree
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. press — newspapers
  19. net — for catching
  20. tube — in a tire
  21. net — after costs
  22. ball — a great time
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. press — a publisher

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