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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 120 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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  6. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  7. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  21. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. press — to push
  3. degree — from a university
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. race — humankind
  6. fork — to eat with
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. ground — a position
  9. race — a contest
  10. fork — in a road
  11. ground — crushed
  12. race — the arms race
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. press — a publisher
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. march — music
  17. degree — temperature
  18. ground — the earth
  19. press — newspapers
  20. fan — to cool the air
  21. chair — a professorship
  22. march — the month
  23. march — the month
  24. degree — an amount

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