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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: kick · press · saw · hand · land · degree · mine · coach

  1. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. She's very handy with a ________________.
  5. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  6. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  7. Did you ________________ the button?
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. degree — an amount
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. saw — the tool
  5. kick — a thrill
  6. saw — past of 'see'
  7. press — to push
  8. land — ground
  9. degree — temperature
  10. kick — with a leg
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. degree — from a university
  13. press — newspapers
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. press — a publisher
  16. hand — help
  17. kick — in football
  18. mine — for digging
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. land — to come down
  21. hand — in cards
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. saw — the tool
  24. land — a country

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