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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 116 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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  8. Did you ________________ the button?
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  17. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. patient — calm and waiting
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. press — a publisher
  8. press — to push
  9. game — wild animals
  10. fall — to drop
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. cold — an illness
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. cold — not warm
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. chair — a leader
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. fall — the season
  20. game — a match
  21. content — happy
  22. press — newspapers
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. fall — to drop

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