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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 116 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. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  8. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. court — for sport
  3. swing — to play on
  4. clip — for paper
  5. patient — calm and waiting
  6. last — final
  7. wave — with your hand
  8. wave — of the sea
  9. cold — not warm
  10. clip — a video
  11. dip — to dunk
  12. court — of law
  13. last — finally
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. dip — a sauce
  16. cold — an illness
  17. swing — in golf
  18. clip — to cut
  19. dip — to sink
  20. court — of a king
  21. wave — a sudden rise
  22. last — to go on
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. swing — music

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