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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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Word bank
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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: degree · cold · press · kick · kid · mine

  1. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Did you ________________ the button?
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. press — a publisher
  2. mine — for digging
  3. kick — in football
  4. degree — from a university
  5. kid — child
  6. degree — an amount
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. kid — to tease
  9. press — newspapers
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. press — to push
  12. cold — not warm
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. kick — with a leg
  17. degree — temperature
  18. cold — an illness

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