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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: firm · cold · net · land · calf · pitcher · press · mine

  1. Did you ________________ the button?
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. He is an ace ________________.
  18. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  19. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  20. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  21. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  22. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  23. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  24. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. land — to come down
  3. net — in sport
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. cold — not warm
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. net — for catching
  9. mine — for digging
  10. calf — a young animal
  11. cold — an illness
  12. land — a country
  13. calf — of the leg
  14. land — ground
  15. firm — steady
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. pitcher — in baseball
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. firm — decided
  20. net — after costs
  21. press — newspapers
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. firm — a company
  24. press — a publisher

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