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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. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  2. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  9. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  18. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  19. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  20. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — high quality
  2. fine — all right
  3. fall — to drop
  4. cold — not warm
  5. march — music
  6. clip — to cut
  7. cold — an illness
  8. fall — the season
  9. cue — a hint
  10. clip — for paper
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. kick — with a leg
  15. march — the month
  16. fall — to drop
  17. fine — a penalty
  18. kick — in football
  19. stem — to come from
  20. cue — a signal
  21. clip — a video
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. march — the month
  24. cue — for pool

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