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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: file · lean · press · spring · cold · race · drill · prune

  1. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. Did you ________________ the button?
  13. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. race — humankind
  3. prune — to trim
  4. lean — to bend
  5. cold — not warm
  6. file — a tool
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. lean — to rest against
  9. race — the arms race
  10. prune — to trim
  11. race — a contest
  12. press — to push
  13. lean — thin
  14. press — newspapers
  15. press — a publisher
  16. drill — the tool
  17. file — a line of people
  18. file — a document
  19. spring — a coil
  20. spring — the season
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. drill — a practice
  23. cold — an illness
  24. drill — army training

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