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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: chair · press · band · pitch · cold · bulb · clip · wake

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. Did you ________________ the button?
  4. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. I've got to change the light ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  18. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  21. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  22. The light ________________ burned out.
  23. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. band — a ring
  3. press — to push
  4. pitch — a sales talk
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. wake — a trail
  7. band — a music group
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. wake — before a funeral
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. chair — a leader
  13. bulb — for light
  14. clip — for paper
  15. clip — a video
  16. cold — an illness
  17. bulb — of a plant
  18. press — a publisher
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. press — newspapers
  21. pitch — a sports field
  22. bulb — for light
  23. pitch — completely
  24. clip — to cut

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