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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 116 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. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  2. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  3. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  4. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. Did you ________________ the button?
  14. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  15. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — a grade
  2. racket — a loud noise
  3. press — a publisher
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. capital — a city
  6. net — for catching
  7. mark — to pay attention
  8. kid — child
  9. kid — to tease
  10. cell — a phone
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. net — in sport
  13. press — to push
  14. racket — for tennis
  15. net — after costs
  16. cell — in biology
  17. press — newspapers
  18. capital — money
  19. clip — a video
  20. clip — to cut
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. mark — a trace
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. clip — for paper

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