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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  8. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  9. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  10. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  11. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  16. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  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. cold — not warm
  2. press — to push
  3. present — a gift
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. bear — the animal
  6. cold — an illness
  7. bear — to put up with
  8. press — a publisher
  9. bear — the animal
  10. hide — animal skin
  11. present — there
  12. clip — to cut
  13. race — a contest
  14. race — the arms race
  15. present — the time now
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. race — humankind
  18. press — newspapers
  19. clip — a video
  20. spring — a coil
  21. hide — to keep secret
  22. spring — of water
  23. spring — the season
  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