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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. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. The King held a masked ________________.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  12. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  21. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  22. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. ball — a dance
  3. bass — low music
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. cold — an illness
  7. clip — to cut
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. clip — a video
  10. hand — in cards
  11. ball — a great time
  12. fan — to cool the air
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. hand — help
  15. bass — the fish
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. clip — for paper
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. lash — an eyelash
  21. lash — to lash out
  22. perch — the fish
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. cold — not warm

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