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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: press · game · content · fork · band · capital · prune · race

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  8. Did you ________________ the button?
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. race — humankind
  3. content — happy
  4. race — a contest
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. press — a publisher
  8. press — to push
  9. band — a music group
  10. game — wild animals
  11. press — newspapers
  12. prune — to trim
  13. fork — in a road
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. race — the arms race
  16. content — the amount
  17. fork — to eat with
  18. game — a match
  19. prune — to trim
  20. capital — money
  21. capital — a city
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. content — videos and posts

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