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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: swing · ball · sharp · bat · press · wound · kid · board

  1. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  14. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  18. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. board — a committee
  2. press — to push
  3. swing — to play on
  4. ball — a dance
  5. bat — the animal
  6. ball — a great time
  7. sharp — with an edge
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. kid — to tease
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. kid — child
  13. ball — a round shape
  14. board — a flat piece
  15. sharp — clever
  16. wound — an injury
  17. press — a publisher
  18. board — to get on
  19. press — newspapers
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. swing — in golf
  23. wound — an injury
  24. swing — music

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