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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. Did you ________________ the button?
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. She's very handy with a ________________.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. cell — in biology
  4. march — the month
  5. degree — from a university
  6. press — newspapers
  7. wake — a trail
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. press — a publisher
  10. scale — in music
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. march — the month
  13. saw — the tool
  14. capital — money
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. degree — an amount
  17. capital — a city
  18. cell — a phone
  19. degree — temperature
  20. wake — to stop sleeping
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. scale — size or range
  23. march — music
  24. saw — the tool

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