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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. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. Did you ________________ the meat?
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  20. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  23. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. cold — an illness
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. march — music
  5. rock — to move gently
  6. hand — help
  7. season — to add flavour
  8. march — the month
  9. cold — not warm
  10. swing — in golf
  11. hand — in cards
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. march — the month
  14. clip — for paper
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. clip — a video
  17. bat — the animal
  18. clip — to cut
  19. season — in sport
  20. rock — music
  21. swing — music
  22. season — of the year
  23. rock — a stone
  24. swing — to play on

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