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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. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  16. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  23. My father caught me by the ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. cue — a signal
  3. tear — from crying
  4. fall — to drop
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. arm — part of the body
  8. cold — not warm
  9. fall — the season
  10. game — a match
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. bat — the animal
  13. cue — a hint
  14. game — wild animals
  15. arm — a part of something
  16. press — a publisher
  17. fall — to drop
  18. press — newspapers
  19. tear — to rip
  20. tear — from crying
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cue — for pool
  23. arm — part of the body
  24. cold — an illness

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