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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  10. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  17. Did you ________________ the button?
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. press — a publisher
  4. cold — an illness
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. cell — a phone
  7. squash — to crush
  8. chair — a leader
  9. root — of a word
  10. season — of the year
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. trunk — of an elephant
  14. press — newspapers
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. root — of a plant
  17. press — to push
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. season — in sport
  20. cell — in biology
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. root — the cause
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. cold — not warm

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