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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 116 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.

Make a worksheet

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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. fall — the season
  3. cold — not warm
  4. clip — for paper
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — an illness
  7. land — a country
  8. land — to come down
  9. object — to protest
  10. fall — to drop
  11. object — a thing
  12. fall — to drop
  13. clip — to cut
  14. object — an aim
  15. clip — a video
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. chair — a leader
  18. land — ground

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