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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 116 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. We're almost out of ________________.
  2. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — soda
  2. cap — a hat
  3. shower — to wash
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. ground — crushed
  8. ground — the earth
  9. pop — to visit
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. cap — of ice
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. pop — music
  14. shower — rain
  15. cold — an illness
  16. chair — a leader
  17. cold — not warm
  18. scale — in music
  19. scale — size or range
  20. clip — for paper
  21. clip — a video
  22. clip — to cut
  23. cap — a lid
  24. ground — a position

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