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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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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  9. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  12. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. I've got to change the light ________________.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. The light ________________ burned out.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Have you settled on a ________________?
  22. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. cold — an illness
  3. wound — an injury
  4. cell — a phone
  5. field — farmland
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. field — a subject
  8. bulb — of a plant
  9. hide — animal skin
  10. cold — not warm
  11. hide — to keep secret
  12. date — the fruit
  13. wound — an injury
  14. bulb — for light
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. bulb — for light
  17. cell — in biology
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. clip — a video
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. hide — to keep secret
  23. field — for sport
  24. clip — for paper

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