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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. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  3. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  12. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. pound — to hit hard
  4. row — to paddle
  5. field — farmland
  6. mine — for digging
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. hide — to keep secret
  9. bat — the animal
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. hide — animal skin
  12. press — newspapers
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. row — a line
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. pound — a weight
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. press — a publisher
  20. snap — to click
  21. field — a subject
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. field — for sport
  24. mine — an explosive

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