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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 116 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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: field · dip · march · sharp · press · spring · kid · cold

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  10. Did you ________________ the button?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  16. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. sharp — clever
  3. spring — the season
  4. field — a subject
  5. march — music
  6. march — the month
  7. press — a publisher
  8. field — farmland
  9. dip — to dunk
  10. press — to push
  11. cold — not warm
  12. spring — a coil
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. dip — a sauce
  16. sharp — with an edge
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. spring — of water
  19. field — for sport
  20. press — newspapers
  21. cold — an illness
  22. kid — child
  23. dip — to sink
  24. march — the month

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