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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 120 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: shower · squash · ball · clip · season · cold · spring · press

  1. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  5. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. Did you ________________ the meat?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. Did you ________________ the button?

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. squash — the sport
  3. cold — an illness
  4. press — newspapers
  5. squash — to crush
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. squash — the vegetable
  8. clip — to cut
  9. spring — the season
  10. shower — to wash
  11. spring — of water
  12. ball — a round shape
  13. shower — rain
  14. season — in sport
  15. clip — a video
  16. cold — not warm
  17. clip — for paper
  18. ball — a dance
  19. season — to add flavour
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. press — a publisher
  22. spring — a coil
  23. season — of the year
  24. press — to push

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