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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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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: clip · press · lean · cold · racket · cell · content · land

  1. Did you ________________ the button?
  2. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. cell — in biology
  3. clip — a video
  4. lean — to rest against
  5. cell — a phone
  6. clip — to cut
  7. racket — for tennis
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. content — happy
  10. land — to come down
  11. land — a country
  12. lean — thin
  13. content — the amount
  14. lean — to bend
  15. land — ground
  16. racket — for tennis
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. press — a publisher
  19. cold — an illness
  20. racket — a loud noise
  21. clip — for paper
  22. cold — not warm
  23. press — newspapers
  24. cell — in a prison

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