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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: game · prune · cue · capital · lash · cold · arm · press

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  6. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  7. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  8. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  12. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  13. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. My father caught me by the ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  22. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  23. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  24. Did you ________________ the button?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. lash — to lash out
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cue — for pool
  6. prune — to trim
  7. press — a publisher
  8. cue — a hint
  9. game — a match
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. arm — part of the body
  12. lash — an eyelash
  13. arm — a part of something
  14. game — wild animals
  15. capital — a city
  16. cue — a signal
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. arm — part of the body
  19. cold — an illness
  20. capital — money
  21. prune — to trim
  22. lash — a whip stroke
  23. press — newspapers
  24. press — to push

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