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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.

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: game · cold · present · can · stock · face · cell · press

  1. Did you ________________ the button?
  2. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  8. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  9. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  19. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  20. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. can — to be able to
  3. face — to point toward
  4. face — to confront
  5. can — a tin
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. can — a tin
  8. present — a gift
  9. press — a publisher
  10. game — a match
  11. cold — an illness
  12. stock — shares
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cell — a phone
  16. press — newspapers
  17. cell — in biology
  18. present — there
  19. stock — goods
  20. stock — a soup base
  21. game — wild animals
  22. present — the time now
  23. face — part of the head
  24. cold — not warm

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