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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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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: chair · press · hide · face · wind · mate · mine · kid

  1. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  5. Did you ________________ the button?
  6. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  17. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. hide — animal skin
  5. press — to push
  6. press — a publisher
  7. wind — moving air
  8. chair — a leader
  9. hide — to keep secret
  10. mate — a partner
  11. hide — to keep secret
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. press — newspapers
  14. mine — for digging
  15. kid — child
  16. mate — a friend
  17. mate — to breed
  18. wind — moving air
  19. face — to point toward
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. face — part of the head
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. kid — to tease
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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