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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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468
Word bank
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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. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. You don't need to ________________ round.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  16. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. We're almost out of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. press — a publisher
  3. stock — a soup base
  4. stock — shares
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. pop — to visit
  7. capital — a city
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. stock — goods
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. press — newspapers
  12. chair — a leader
  13. mine — for digging
  14. cold — not warm
  15. pop — music
  16. kick — in football
  17. cold — an illness
  18. kick — a thrill
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. capital — money
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. pop — soda

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