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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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  5. Did you ________________ the button?
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  12. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  16. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  19. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. degree — an amount
  3. clip — a video
  4. tube — a container
  5. press — to push
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. degree — from a university
  8. pound — a weight
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. pass — to succeed
  12. pound — for dogs
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. tube — the underground
  15. tube — in a tire
  16. pass — a permit
  17. degree — temperature
  18. press — newspapers
  19. press — a publisher
  20. clip — to cut
  21. clip — for paper
  22. game — a match
  23. game — wild animals
  24. pass — to spend time

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