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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: land · mate · cold · mine · content · bear · press · chair

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  4. Have you found your soul ________________?
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  9. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. Did you ________________ the button?
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. mate — a friend
  3. bear — the animal
  4. mate — a partner
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. land — a country
  7. land — to come down
  8. bear — the animal
  9. bear — to put up with
  10. content — the amount
  11. land — ground
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. press — a publisher
  14. mine — for digging
  15. content — happy
  16. chair — a leader
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. mate — to breed
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. press — to push
  21. cold — not warm
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. press — newspapers
  24. cold — an illness

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