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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. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  2. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — decided
  2. cap — a lid
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. clip — to cut
  5. cap — of ice
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. swing — in golf
  8. cap — a hat
  9. shower — rain
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. mine — for digging
  12. firm — steady
  13. shower — to wash
  14. clip — a video
  15. last — to go on
  16. swing — music
  17. clip — for paper
  18. last — final
  19. bat — the animal
  20. last — finally
  21. swing — to play on
  22. firm — a company
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. bat — for baseball

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