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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. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. It's one o'clock ________________.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  19. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  20. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  21. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  22. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  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 — to push
  2. sharp — clever
  3. row — a line
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. row — to paddle
  6. sharp — exactly
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. dip — to sink
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. squash — the sport
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. wound — an injury
  14. rule — a law
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. dip — a sauce
  17. bat — the animal
  18. rule — to rule out
  19. rule — government
  20. squash — the vegetable
  21. squash — to crush
  22. press — a publisher
  23. wound — an injury
  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