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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. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  11. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. The King held a masked ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  16. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  21. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. press — to push
  3. kid — to tease
  4. pitch — completely
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. ball — a great time
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. cold — not warm
  10. wave — with your hand
  11. pitch — a sales talk
  12. cell — in biology
  13. ball — a dance
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. pitch — a sports field
  16. ball — a round shape
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. press — newspapers
  20. press — a publisher
  21. wave — of the sea
  22. cold — an illness
  23. wave — a sudden rise
  24. kid — child

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