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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 cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. press — to push
  3. tear — to rip
  4. kid — to tease
  5. cap — a hat
  6. cap — a lid
  7. last — final
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. squash — the sport
  10. row — a line
  11. press — a publisher
  12. kid — child
  13. tear — from crying
  14. row — to paddle
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. mine — for digging
  17. last — to go on
  18. cap — of ice
  19. last — finally
  20. press — newspapers
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. squash — to crush
  24. mine — belonging to me

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