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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  3. Did you ________________ the button?
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. fall — to drop
  3. press — to push
  4. wound — an injury
  5. net — in sport
  6. net — for catching
  7. fall — to drop
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. press — newspapers
  10. cold — an illness
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. court — of law
  13. court — of a king
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. net — after costs
  16. fall — the season
  17. cold — not warm
  18. court — for sport
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. press — a publisher
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. wound — an injury
  23. kid — child
  24. kid — to tease

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