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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. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  6. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. Did you ________________ the button?
  14. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  20. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. pop — soda
  4. cold — not warm
  5. bear — to put up with
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. pop — to visit
  8. fan — to cool the air
  9. pop — music
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. press — to push
  14. stem — to come from
  15. cold — an illness
  16. bear — the animal
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. bear — the animal
  20. press — a publisher
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. wound — an injury
  23. press — newspapers
  24. wound — an injury

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