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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 116 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: game · wake · last · press · cold · kid

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. Did you ________________ the button?
  10. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. kid — to tease
  4. last — to go on
  5. last — finally
  6. press — a publisher
  7. game — a match
  8. game — wild animals
  9. press — to push
  10. wake — a trail
  11. cold — not warm
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. press — newspapers
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. wake — to stop sleeping
  16. kid — child
  17. cold — an illness
  18. game — a kind of play

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