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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  8. Have you met the new head ________________?
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  16. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  17. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Have you found your soul ________________?
  21. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  22. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  23. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. clip — for paper
  3. bore — gave birth
  4. clip — to cut
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. bore — to tire
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. mate — a friend
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. cold — an illness
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. snap — to click
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. mate — to breed
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. bore — to drill
  18. coach — pulled by horses
  19. clip — a video
  20. mate — a partner
  21. season — of the year
  22. fork — to eat with
  23. season — in sport
  24. fork — in a road

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