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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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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: race · kid · pitch · deal · band · cold · fall · press

  1. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  2. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  6. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  9. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  10. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. Did you ________________ the button?
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. deal — to handle
  3. fall — to drop
  4. cold — not warm
  5. deal — an agreement
  6. pitch — a sales talk
  7. kid — child
  8. fall — the season
  9. pitch — completely
  10. deal — a big deal
  11. cold — an illness
  12. press — newspapers
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. pitch — a sports field
  15. band — a music group
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. race — humankind
  18. band — a ring
  19. race — the arms race
  20. press — a publisher
  21. kid — to tease
  22. press — to push
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. race — a contest

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