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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: key · drill · last · fork · wind · bat · press · chest

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  6. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  19. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  20. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  23. This piece is in a major ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. press — to push
  3. last — finally
  4. bat — the animal
  5. press — newspapers
  6. drill — the tool
  7. drill — army training
  8. wind — moving air
  9. chest — of your body
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. chest — of your body
  12. last — to go on
  13. chest — a box
  14. fork — a garden tool
  15. drill — a practice
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. press — a publisher
  19. key — for a lock
  20. key — the most important part
  21. wind — moving air
  22. fork — in a road
  23. key — in music
  24. bat — for baseball

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