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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 120 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. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. current — happening now
  4. row — a line
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. current — of water
  7. cell — a phone
  8. capital — money
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. cell — in biology
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. march — the month
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. capital — a city
  16. march — the month
  17. hand — help
  18. season — in sport
  19. row — to paddle
  20. march — music
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. current — electric
  23. hand — in cards
  24. straw — a straw man

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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