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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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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  14. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. spring — a coil
  3. degree — from a university
  4. degree — temperature
  5. hand — in cards
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. press — a publisher
  8. race — a contest
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. race — the arms race
  11. spring — the season
  12. race — humankind
  13. rest — a break
  14. rest — what's left
  15. bark — to shout
  16. rest — what's left
  17. spring — of water
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. press — newspapers
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. hand — help
  22. trunk — of a tree
  23. degree — an amount
  24. hand — part of the body

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