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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 ________________ with my boss today.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  4. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. He is an ace ________________.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. clip — for paper
  3. toast — a drink to someone
  4. toast — the most admired
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. spell — a short time
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. spell — letters
  10. row — to paddle
  11. clip — a video
  12. cold — an illness
  13. clip — to cut
  14. toast — bread
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. spell — magic
  17. row — a line
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. pitcher — in baseball
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. cell — a phone
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cell — in biology

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