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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 120 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. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Did you ________________ the button?
  4. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. press — to push
  4. wake — to stop sleeping
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. press — a publisher
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. net — after costs
  11. wake — a trail
  12. bark — to shout
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. cold — not warm
  15. bat — the animal
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. press — newspapers
  18. net — for catching
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. scale — in music
  21. cold — an illness
  22. scale — size or range
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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