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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. My father caught me by the ________________.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  22. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. spell — letters
  3. court — of law
  4. clip — to cut
  5. clip — for paper
  6. drill — a practice
  7. court — for sport
  8. drill — the tool
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. court — of a king
  11. fork — to eat with
  12. chest — of your body
  13. arm — a part of something
  14. chest — a box
  15. chest — of your body
  16. arm — part of the body
  17. spell — magic
  18. clip — a video
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — an illness
  21. spell — a short time
  22. fork — a garden tool
  23. drill — army training
  24. fork — in a road

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