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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. He was locked up in a ________________.
  2. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  4. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  11. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. Did you ________________ the button?
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  19. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in a prison
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. cell — in biology
  4. rule — government
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. last — final
  8. press — newspapers
  9. cold — not warm
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. rule — a law
  12. spring — a coil
  13. last — to go on
  14. press — to push
  15. spring — of water
  16. cell — a phone
  17. last — finally
  18. rule — to rule out
  19. press — a publisher
  20. spring — the season
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. cold — an illness
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. straw — a straw man

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