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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. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. I assure you, everything's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — animal skin
  2. prune — to trim
  3. capital — money
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. cell — in biology
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. band — a ring
  10. clip — a video
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. prune — to trim
  13. clip — to cut
  14. fine — a penalty
  15. cold — not warm
  16. clip — for paper
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. hide — to keep secret
  19. band — a music group
  20. capital — a city
  21. fine — high quality
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cell — a phone
  24. fine — all right

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