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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. Did you ________________ the button?
  2. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  5. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  6. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  19. The King held a masked ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  24. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. mouse — for a computer
  3. ball — a great time
  4. rash — a series
  5. mouse — the animal
  6. mouse — the animal
  7. chest — of your body
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. last — final
  11. chest — of your body
  12. shower — rain
  13. chest — a box
  14. rash — hasty
  15. last — to go on
  16. scale — size or range
  17. last — finally
  18. rash — on the skin
  19. ball — a dance
  20. shower — to wash
  21. ball — a round shape
  22. scale — in music
  23. press — a publisher
  24. press — newspapers

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