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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. We're almost out of ________________.
  2. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. You don't need to ________________ round.
  7. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  21. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — soda
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. cold — not warm
  5. fall — to drop
  6. pop — to visit
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. clip — a video
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. game — wild animals
  11. clip — for paper
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. wake — a trail
  14. kick — a thrill
  15. cold — an illness
  16. fall — to drop
  17. kick — in football
  18. game — a match
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. wake — before a funeral
  21. coach — pulled by horses
  22. fall — the season
  23. clip — to cut
  24. pop — 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