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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  15. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. Did you ________________ the button?
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  21. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  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. hand — help
  2. pitch — a sales talk
  3. cold — not warm
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. rest — a break
  6. squash — to crush
  7. hand — in cards
  8. rest — what's left
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. squash — the sport
  11. face — to confront
  12. cold — an illness
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. rest — what's left
  15. press — a publisher
  16. face — part of the head
  17. scale — size or range
  18. press — to push
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. pitch — completely
  21. pitch — a sports field
  22. scale — in music
  23. face — to point toward
  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