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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. When was this ________________ built?
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  5. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. He works in a ________________ mill.
  9. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  10. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  13. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  17. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  18. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  19. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. She's very handy with a ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. bass — low music
  3. cold — not warm
  4. temple — a place of worship
  5. bass — the instrument
  6. cold — an illness
  7. clip — to cut
  8. saw — the tool
  9. temple — side of the head
  10. mark — a trace
  11. clip — for paper
  12. leaves — lets stay
  13. leaves — to go away
  14. clip — a video
  15. bass — the fish
  16. mark — to pay attention
  17. saw — past of 'see'
  18. leaves — of a tree
  19. mark — a grade
  20. capital — money
  21. saw — the tool
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. capital — a city
  24. capital — a big letter

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