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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. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  5. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  6. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  12. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. David sat on the ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  21. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. file — a line of people
  3. bass — the fish
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. bass — low music
  6. bass — the instrument
  7. clip — for paper
  8. racket — for tennis
  9. court — of a king
  10. file — a tool
  11. fall — the season
  12. swing — in golf
  13. clip — a video
  14. court — of law
  15. clip — to cut
  16. cold — not warm
  17. swing — to play on
  18. file — a document
  19. court — for sport
  20. racket — a loud noise
  21. fall — to drop
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. swing — music
  24. cold — an illness

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