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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. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. He was locked up in a ________________.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. hand — in cards
  3. cell — in a prison
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. cell — a phone
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. capital — money
  9. march — music
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. march — the month
  12. cell — in biology
  13. march — the month
  14. trunk — of a car
  15. capital — a city
  16. press — newspapers
  17. hand — help
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. shower — rain
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. shower — to wash
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. press — a publisher
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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