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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. Have you found your soul ________________?
  8. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  11. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Did you ________________ the button?
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  23. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. scale — size or range
  3. content — happy
  4. track — a song
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. net — for catching
  7. mate — a partner
  8. mate — a friend
  9. net — in sport
  10. mate — to breed
  11. track — a path
  12. cold — not warm
  13. press — to push
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. press — a publisher
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. cold — an illness
  18. net — after costs
  19. content — the amount
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. track — to keep track
  23. press — newspapers
  24. scale — in music

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