21 English Words with Multiple Meanings: Examples, Sentences and Pronunciation

What do you call words with multiple meanings

The general term is homonym: a word spelled or pronounced the same as another word but with a different meaning. Three narrower labels (homograph, heteronym, polysemy) map onto the three groups below.

Two things are not on this list. Homophones (two, too, to) are different words that sound alike; on the page, the spelling already gives the meaning. Synonyms (big, large) are the reverse case: different words, one meaning.

Group A: same spelling, same sound, different meanings

These are the classic homonyms. The pronunciation never changes, so the listener relies on the sentence. Each meaning has one example sentence you can reuse.

1. Bank

1. A place that keeps and lends money. The bank closes at 5 p.m. on Fridays.
2. The sloping land beside a river. We sat on the bank and watched the boats.
3. A row of similar machines or parts. A bank of monitors covered the wall of the control room.
4. To tilt while turning (of an aircraft). The plane banked left over the coast.

Sound: /bæŋk/ for every meaning (Cambridge).

2. Bat

1. A stick for hitting a ball. He swung the bat and missed.
2. A small flying animal. A bat flew out of the barn at dusk.
3. To open and close your eyes quickly. She didn’t bat an eye when the price doubled.

Sound: /bæt/ for every meaning (Cambridge).

3. Match

1. A game between two teams or players. The match went to extra time.
2. A short stick that makes fire. Strike the match away from you.
3. Someone or something of equal strength or quality. On price, no other supplier is a match for them.
4. To go well together, or to be the same. The new logo doesn’t match the website colors.

Sound: /mætʃ/ for every meaning (Cambridge).

4. Fair

1. Treating people equally and reasonably. The new policy is fair to part-time staff.
2. Light in color (of hair or skin). Both children have fair hair.
3. Neither very good nor very bad. Attendance was fair, about half the team.
4. A public event where things are shown and sold. We had a booth at the trade fair in March.

Sound: /fer/ for every meaning, and the same sound as fare, a separate word (Cambridge).

5. Fine

1. Good enough, acceptable. Tuesday at 10 is fine for me.
2. Very thin or in very small pieces. Use fine sandpaper for the last pass.
3. Money paid as a punishment. The parking fine was $80.

Sound: /faɪn/ for every meaning. As a one-word answer, fine said in a flat tone means the opposite of “good” (Cambridge).

6. Right

1. Correct. Your first answer was right.
2. The side opposite left. Turn right at the second light.
3. Something you are legally or morally allowed to have or do. Every employee has the right to see their own file.
4. To correct, or to return to an upright position. The boat righted itself after the wave.

Sound: /raɪt/ for every meaning, and the same sound as write (Cambridge).

7. Spring

1. The season between winter and summer. The launch moved from spring to fall.
2. A coil of metal that returns to its shape. A spring in the chair had broken.
3. A place where water flows out of the ground. The village gets its water from a spring.
4. To jump or move suddenly. The cat sprang onto the desk.

Sound: /sprɪŋ/ for every meaning (Cambridge).

Group B: same spelling, different sound (heteronyms)

Heteronyms are the trap for speakers. On the page the two words look identical; out loud, the vowel changes (lead, tear, bow, wind, live), the final consonant changes (close), or the stress moves (present, record, minute).

The stress pairs follow one pattern: noun or adjective on the first syllable, verb on the second. PRES-ent is the gift, pre-SENT is what you do with a slide deck; the same rule covers REC-ord / re-CORD, OB-ject / ob-JECT, PRO-duce / pro-DUCE, CON-tract / con-TRACT and DES-ert / de-SERT. Drills for the shift are in the English pronunciation practice guide.

8. Present

1. A gift (noun). The team bought her a present for her last day.
2. Here, or happening now (adjective). Everyone was present at the kickoff.
3. To show or give something formally (verb). You’ll present the numbers first, then I’ll take questions.

Sound: PRES-ent /ˈprez.ənt/ for the noun and adjective; pre-SENT /prɪˈzent/ for the verb (Cambridge).

9. Record

1. Written or stored information (noun). Keep a record of every call.
2. The best result ever achieved (noun). She broke the national record by two seconds.
3. A flat disc with music on it (noun). He still buys records.
4. To store sound or video, or to write something down (verb). We record every customer interview.

Sound: REC-ord /ˈrek.ɚd/ for the three nouns; re-CORD /rɪˈkɔːrd/ for the verb (Cambridge).

10. Lead

1. To be in charge, or to go in front (verb). Maya will lead the project from October.
2. A winning position (noun). They have a two-goal lead.
3. A piece of information that may become a sale or a solution (noun). Marketing sent over 40 new leads this week.
4. A heavy gray metal, or the black core of a pencil (noun). Old pipes were made of lead.

Sound: /liːd/ (rhymes with need) for meanings 1 to 3; /led/ (rhymes with red) for the metal (Cambridge).

11. Tear

1. To pull apart, to rip (verb). Don’t tear the label off the box.
2. A hole made by ripping (noun). There’s a tear in the seat cover.
3. A drop of liquid from the eye (noun). A tear ran down his cheek.

Sound: /ter/ (rhymes with air) for ripping; /tɪr/ (rhymes with ear) for crying (Cambridge).

12. Bow

1. To bend forward from the waist (verb). The cast bowed at the end of the show.
2. The front of a ship (noun). Waves broke over the bow.
3. A knot with two loops (noun). She tied the ribbon in a bow.
4. A weapon for arrows, or the stick used to play a violin (noun). He drew the bow and released the arrow.

Sound: /baʊ/ (rhymes with now) for bending and the ship; /boʊ/ (rhymes with go) for the knot and the weapon (Cambridge).

13. Wind

1. Moving air (noun). The wind knocked over the sign.
2. Breath (noun). The climb knocked the wind out of me.
3. To turn a key or handle to make a mechanism work (verb). You have to wind the clock once a week.
4. To follow a route with many turns, or to wrap around (verb). The road winds through the hills.

Sound: /wɪnd/ (rhymes with pinned) for air and breath; /waɪnd/ (rhymes with find) for turning and wrapping, including wind up a meeting (Cambridge).

14. Minute

1. 60 seconds (noun). The demo takes about a minute.
2. The written record of a meeting, usually plural (noun). Who is taking the minutes today?
3. Extremely small (adjective). The difference between the two versions is minute.

Sound: MIN-ute /ˈmɪn.ɪt/ for the time and the meeting notes; my-NUTE /maɪˈnuːt/ for “tiny” (Cambridge).

15. Close

1. To shut (verb). Close the door, the call is starting.
2. To end, or to complete a business deal (verb). We closed the deal on Friday.
3. Near in space or time (adjective). The office is close to the station.
4. With only a small difference; or knowing someone well (adjective). It was a close vote, 7 to 6.

Sound: /kloʊz/ with a buzzing z for the verbs; /kloʊs/ with a soft s for the adjectives. “We’re close” (near) and “we close” (we shut) differ only in that consonant (Cambridge).

16. Live

1. To be alive, or to have your home somewhere (verb). They live in Austin now.
2. Broadcast or performed as it happens (adjective). The keynote is live at 9 a.m.
3. Carrying electricity (adjective). Don’t touch that wire, it’s live.
4. Operating, in use (adjective, in “go live”). The new checkout goes live on Monday.

Sound: /lɪv/ (rhymes with give) for the verb; /laɪv/ (rhymes with five) for every adjective use, including go live (Cambridge).

Six more heteronyms follow the same rules; at least one meaning of each is common at work:

Group C: one word with many related meanings (polysemy)

Here the senses grew out of one idea, so they overlap, and dictionaries list dozens of them. The sound never changes.

17. Run

1. To move fast on foot. I run before work three times a week.
2. To operate, or to be operating (of machines and software). The tests run every night at 2 a.m.
3. To manage. She runs the Berlin office.
4. To be a candidate in an election. He’s running for city council.

Sound: /rʌn/ for every meaning; the OED entry is the longest in English (next section) (Cambridge).

18. Set

1. To put something in a place or position. Set the box on the table.
2. To decide or establish (a date, a goal, a price). We set the deadline for the 15th.
3. Ready, or fixed (adjective). Everything is set for the launch.
4. A group of things that belong together (noun). The kit comes with a set of six screwdrivers.

Sound: /set/ for every meaning (Cambridge).

19. Head

1. The part of the body above the neck. He hit his head on the shelf.
2. The person in charge. The head of finance signs off on anything over $10,000.
3. The top or front of something. Put the date at the head of the page.
4. To go in a direction (verb). We’re heading to the airport now.

Sound: /hed/ for every meaning (Cambridge).

20. Charge

1. To ask money for something, or the amount asked (verb, noun). They charge $40 an hour. There’s no charge for delivery.
2. To accuse someone formally of a crime (verb, noun). He was charged with fraud.
3. Electricity stored in a battery, or to put it there (noun, verb). My phone has 10% charge. I need to charge it.
4. Responsibility for something (noun, in “in charge”). Who is in charge of the schedule?

Sound: /tʃɑːrdʒ/ for every meaning (Cambridge).

21. Play

1. To do something for fun, or to take part in a game. The kids play outside until six.
2. To perform music, or to make a recording produce sound. She plays the cello. Play the message again.
3. A story written for the theater (noun). The play runs for two hours.
4. A planned move in a sport, or, at work, a strategic move (noun). Cutting the price was a smart play.

Sound: /pleɪ/ for every meaning (Cambridge).

The English word with the most meanings is “run”: 645 senses

When the Oxford English Dictionary revised the letter R in 2011, lexicographer Peter Gilliver counted 645 distinct senses for the verb run alone, more than put and set. Simon Winchester, author of a history of the OED, gave the figures in a May 30, 2011 interview on NPR’s Talk of the Nation: in the 1928 first edition the champion was set, with about 200 meanings across 32 printed pages; put overtook it during the 20th century; then run outran both.

Winchester’s explanation is the Industrial Revolution: machines run, clocks run, and later computers run, and each technology added senses.

10 words with 2 meanings

Two common, unrelated meanings each, one pronunciation.

10 words with 3 meanings

Three unrelated senses each, all in daily or office use. Address is the one heteronym: noun on the first syllable, verb on the second.

The everyday sense of most of these words is in the 500 words for daily life list; this page adds the other senses.

How to tell which meaning is meant

Three cues settle almost every case, in this order of reliability:

1. Part of speech. After the or a the word is a noun; after to, will or a subject pronoun it is a verb. A record is information; to record is an action.
2. The words next to it. Bank with account or loan is money; bank with river or boats is land.
3. Stress and vowel, in speech. For heteronyms the sound is the meaning: /led/ is a metal, /liːd/ is a verb; close with an s means near, not shutting.

Five pairs where only the context changes:

Practice: say the sound that changes the meaning

Group A and Group C need reading. Group B needs your mouth. Each sentence below contains a heteronym twice, once with each sound, so you hear the shift in your own voice.

One word, two countries: in the US, to table a proposal means to postpone it; in the UK, to put it forward for discussion. Both senses are in the dictionary, and both turn up in the same meeting when the team is international.

For longer texts with the same trainer, the graded speaking practice texts go from A2 to C1. If you are not sure which level to pick, the free English level test takes 18 questions.

Hear which “present” you actually said

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