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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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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: net · court · mouse · shower · press · cabinet · clip · patient

  1. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  5. Did you ________________ the button?
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  11. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  12. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  13. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  20. What do you think of the new ________________?
  21. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — a publisher
  2. court — for sport
  3. shower — to wash
  4. cabinet — ministers
  5. press — to push
  6. shower — rain
  7. clip — for paper
  8. clip — to cut
  9. court — of a king
  10. patient — calm and waiting
  11. mouse — for a computer
  12. net — after costs
  13. mouse — the animal
  14. press — newspapers
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. net — for catching
  17. mouse — the animal
  18. clip — a video
  19. cabinet — a cupboard
  20. cabinet — ministers
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. court — of law
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. net — in sport

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