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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: press · scale · ball · kid · clip · fork · club · season

  1. Did you ________________ the button?
  2. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  3. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  8. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  11. The King held a masked ________________.
  12. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  13. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  14. Did you ________________ the meat?
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  17. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  18. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. Spring is a pleasant ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. club — a group
  3. fork — to eat with
  4. kid — child
  5. clip — for paper
  6. clip — to cut
  7. club — for dancing
  8. club — for golf
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. fork — a garden tool
  11. ball — a dance
  12. fork — in a road
  13. press — a publisher
  14. season — to add flavour
  15. kid — to tease
  16. season — in sport
  17. press — newspapers
  18. ball — a great time
  19. clip — a video
  20. scale — in music
  21. scale — size or range
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. season — of the year

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