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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. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. Did you ________________ the button?
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  22. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  23. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — a publisher
  2. degree — an amount
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. cold — not warm
  5. cold — an illness
  6. race — humankind
  7. degree — temperature
  8. bowl — a football final
  9. degree — from a university
  10. race — the arms race
  11. press — to push
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. bowl — a dish
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. bowl — to roll
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. bass — low music
  20. race — a contest
  21. bass — the fish
  22. bark — to shout
  23. press — newspapers
  24. straw — dry grass

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