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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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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. The King held a masked ________________.
  2. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  12. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. When will it ________________ you to start?
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a dance
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. suit — clothes
  4. bat — the animal
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. spring — the season
  7. present — a gift
  8. ball — a round shape
  9. cold — not warm
  10. clip — a video
  11. present — the time now
  12. suit — in cards
  13. clip — to cut
  14. coach — pulled by horses
  15. spring — of water
  16. suit — to fit
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. cold — an illness
  20. ball — a great time
  21. clip — for paper
  22. present — there
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. spring — a coil

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