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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. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  2. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. Did you ________________ the button?
  7. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  8. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  14. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  20. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — to eat with
  2. fork — a garden tool
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. fall — to drop
  5. net — for catching
  6. press — to push
  7. rule — a law
  8. fall — to drop
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. rule — government
  11. net — in sport
  12. fall — the season
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. press — a publisher
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. rule — to rule out
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. bat — the animal
  19. net — after costs
  20. press — newspapers
  21. fork — in a road
  22. clip — for paper
  23. clip — a video
  24. clip — to cut

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