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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 · clip · field · squash · rule · present · cell · face

  1. Did you ________________ the button?
  2. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  18. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. rule — a law
  3. squash — the sport
  4. rule — to rule out
  5. clip — to cut
  6. present — a gift
  7. face — to confront
  8. face — to point toward
  9. field — farmland
  10. press — newspapers
  11. squash — to crush
  12. cell — a phone
  13. press — a publisher
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. clip — for paper
  16. face — part of the head
  17. rule — government
  18. present — there
  19. clip — a video
  20. cell — in biology
  21. squash — the vegetable
  22. field — for sport
  23. field — a subject
  24. present — the time now

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