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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 120 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: lash · degree · capital · pop · mate · wind · press · tear

  1. Did you ________________ the button?
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  15. Have you found your soul ________________?
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  19. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  24. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. tear — from crying
  3. degree — from a university
  4. lash — a whip stroke
  5. pop — soda
  6. tear — to rip
  7. capital — money
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. degree — an amount
  10. tear — from crying
  11. capital — a city
  12. lash — an eyelash
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. lash — to lash out
  15. mate — a partner
  16. wind — moving air
  17. pop — to visit
  18. press — a publisher
  19. pop — music
  20. degree — temperature
  21. press — newspapers
  22. wind — moving air
  23. mate — a friend
  24. mate — to breed

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