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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. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  13. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  16. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. leaves — to go away
  2. cold — not warm
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. chest — of your body
  5. leaves — lets stay
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. squash — to crush
  8. clip — a video
  9. chest — a box
  10. clip — for paper
  11. spring — the season
  12. kick — in football
  13. bass — the instrument
  14. spring — of water
  15. bass — low music
  16. leaves — of a tree
  17. clip — to cut
  18. bass — the fish
  19. spring — a coil
  20. squash — the sport
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — an illness
  23. kick — with a leg
  24. chest — of your body

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