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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  4. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  7. The King held a masked ________________.
  8. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The ________________ took off on time.
  12. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  20. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  23. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  24. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. wind — moving air
  3. board — a committee
  4. lean — to bend
  5. clip — a video
  6. lean — thin
  7. ball — a dance
  8. ball — a round shape
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. cold — not warm
  11. plane — an aircraft
  12. board — a flat piece
  13. chest — a box
  14. clip — to cut
  15. chest — of your body
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. wind — moving air
  18. chest — of your body
  19. plane — in geometry
  20. board — to get on
  21. clip — for paper
  22. plane — a tool
  23. ball — a great time
  24. lean — to rest against

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