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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. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  2. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The ________________ went through the wall.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. safe — out of danger
  2. safe — out of danger
  3. cold — an illness
  4. march — the month
  5. last — final
  6. safe — a strongbox
  7. clip — to cut
  8. clip — a video
  9. last — finally
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. cold — not warm
  12. mine — for digging
  13. nail — on a finger
  14. clip — for paper
  15. march — the month
  16. spring — the season
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. spring — a coil
  19. nail — for a hammer
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. spring — of water
  23. last — to go on
  24. march — 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