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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: press · bore · face · band · straw · cold · net · spring

  1. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  10. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. Did you ________________ the button?
  23. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. net — after costs
  3. bore — to tire
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. band — a ring
  7. press — a publisher
  8. face — part of the head
  9. bore — to drill
  10. bore — gave birth
  11. spring — of water
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cold — an illness
  14. band — a music group
  15. net — for catching
  16. press — newspapers
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. spring — the season
  19. face — to point toward
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. spring — a coil
  22. press — to push
  23. face — to confront
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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