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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: chair · clip · press · cold · present · shower

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Did you ________________ the button?
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. shower — to wash
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. shower — rain
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. cold — not warm
  7. present — a gift
  8. clip — to cut
  9. press — to push
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. chair — a leader
  12. clip — for paper
  13. present — the time now
  14. clip — a video
  15. present — there
  16. cold — an illness
  17. press — a publisher
  18. press — newspapers

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