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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 was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  8. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  12. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. David sat on the ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  22. The King held a masked ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. spring — a coil
  3. cold — not warm
  4. clip — a video
  5. clip — for paper
  6. spring — of water
  7. can — to be able to
  8. can — a tin
  9. spell — magic
  10. spring — the season
  11. can — a tin
  12. spell — a short time
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. swing — to play on
  16. clip — to cut
  17. ball — a round shape
  18. swing — in golf
  19. kick — in football
  20. spell — letters
  21. kick — a thrill
  22. ball — a dance
  23. cold — an illness
  24. swing — music

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