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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: cold · march · press · chest · prune · mouse · row · snap

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. Did you ________________ the button?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. snap — to speak sharply
  3. chest — of your body
  4. press — to push
  5. cold — not warm
  6. march — the month
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. mouse — the animal
  9. prune — to trim
  10. press — newspapers
  11. march — the month
  12. mouse — the animal
  13. chest — of your body
  14. row — to paddle
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. mouse — for a computer
  18. row — a line
  19. march — music
  20. snap — to click
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. prune — to trim
  23. chest — a box
  24. press — a publisher

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