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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. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  2. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. Did you ________________ the button?
  6. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  9. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. We're on a ________________ here.
  13. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — army training
  2. drill — a practice
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. press — to push
  6. press — a publisher
  7. mine — for digging
  8. roll — a list
  9. press — newspapers
  10. race — a contest
  11. drill — the tool
  12. roll — on a roll
  13. date — the fruit
  14. cold — not warm
  15. roll — a cake
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. net — for catching
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. net — in sport
  21. race — the arms race
  22. net — after costs
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. race — humankind

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