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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  6. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  7. Have you met the new head ________________?
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  20. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  21. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. game — wild animals
  3. clip — a video
  4. game — a match
  5. club — for golf
  6. club — for dancing
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. coach — pulled by horses
  11. cold — not warm
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cold — an illness
  14. clip — to cut
  15. snap — to click
  16. bowl — to roll
  17. band — a music group
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. bowl — a football final
  20. bowl — a dish
  21. club — a group
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. clip — for paper
  24. snap — to snap out of it

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