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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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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: chair · capital · file · press · lash · cell · mine · rush

  1. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  7. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. Did you ________________ the button?
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. That must've been a ________________.
  18. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — to lash out
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. file — a tool
  4. capital — money
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. press — a publisher
  7. rush — hurry
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. mine — for digging
  10. press — to push
  11. capital — a city
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. chair — a leader
  14. press — newspapers
  15. file — a line of people
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. rush — a thrill
  18. lash — an eyelash
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. cell — a phone
  22. file — a document
  23. lash — a whip stroke
  24. cell — in biology

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