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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 116 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. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  15. Did you ________________ the button?
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — a publisher
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. land — ground
  5. file — a line of people
  6. march — the month
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. land — a country
  9. march — the month
  10. content — happy
  11. march — music
  12. press — newspapers
  13. land — to come down
  14. dip — a sauce
  15. press — to push
  16. content — the amount
  17. dip — to dunk
  18. file — a document
  19. capital — a city
  20. hand — in cards
  21. capital — money
  22. dip — to sink
  23. hand — help
  24. file — a tool

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