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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. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.

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

Answer key

  1. press — a publisher
  2. press — to push
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. chest — of your body
  5. kid — child
  6. clip — a video
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. race — a contest
  9. race — humankind
  10. chest — of your body
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. kick — in football
  13. race — the arms race
  14. clip — to cut
  15. snap — to click
  16. kick — a thrill
  17. last — finally
  18. last — final
  19. kid — to tease
  20. clip — for paper
  21. chest — a box
  22. last — to go on
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. press — newspapers

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