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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. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  3. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  4. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  18. Did you ________________ the button?
  19. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  20. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  23. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. press — a publisher
  2. mark — a trace
  3. staff — employees
  4. deal — a big deal
  5. file — a tool
  6. ball — a dance
  7. deal — an agreement
  8. prune — to trim
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. staff — employees
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — not warm
  14. press — newspapers
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. prune — to trim
  17. mark — to pay attention
  18. press — to push
  19. ball — a great time
  20. mark — a grade
  21. file — a line of people
  22. staff — a stick
  23. deal — to handle
  24. file — a document

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