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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. I'll be taking the ________________.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Have you found your soul ________________?
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Did you ________________ the button?
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — the underground
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. press — a publisher
  4. wind — moving air
  5. tube — a container
  6. degree — temperature
  7. mate — a partner
  8. wind — moving air
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. press — to push
  11. clip — for paper
  12. mate — a friend
  13. clip — a video
  14. mine — for digging
  15. tube — in a tire
  16. degree — from a university
  17. net — after costs
  18. clip — to cut
  19. press — newspapers
  20. net — in sport
  21. mate — to breed
  22. degree — an amount
  23. net — for catching
  24. mine — an explosive

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