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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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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: wind · squash · press · capital · land · cold · trunk · hand

  1. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Did you ________________ the button?
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. trunk — of a car
  3. wind — moving air
  4. capital — a city
  5. cold — not warm
  6. squash — to crush
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. press — a publisher
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. hand — in cards
  11. hand — help
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. cold — an illness
  14. wind — moving air
  15. squash — the sport
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. press — newspapers
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. press — to push
  20. capital — money
  21. trunk — of an elephant
  22. land — to come down
  23. land — ground
  24. land — a country

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