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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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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: chair · cold · fine · press · band · capital

  1. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  11. Did you ________________ the button?
  12. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  17. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — a penalty
  2. cold — an illness
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. capital — money
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. cold — not warm
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. band — a ring
  10. fine — high quality
  11. press — to push
  12. press — a publisher
  13. chair — a leader
  14. capital — a city
  15. band — a music group
  16. fine — all right
  17. press — newspapers
  18. band — a rubber band

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