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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cold · chest · press · lash · degree · racket

  1. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  9. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. Did you ________________ the button?
  14. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. press — a publisher
  2. degree — from a university
  3. lash — an eyelash
  4. chest — a box
  5. racket — for tennis
  6. chest — of your body
  7. cold — not warm
  8. lash — a whip stroke
  9. press — newspapers
  10. degree — an amount
  11. racket — a loud noise
  12. degree — temperature
  13. press — to push
  14. racket — for tennis
  15. cold — an illness
  16. chest — of your body
  17. lash — to lash out
  18. cold — the Cold War

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