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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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Word bank
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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. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  3. Have you found your soul ________________?
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  13. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. rest — what's left
  3. mate — a partner
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — an illness
  6. arm — a part of something
  7. spring — of water
  8. clip — for paper
  9. rest — a break
  10. spring — a coil
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. pitch — a sports field
  13. rest — what's left
  14. clip — a video
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. pitch — completely
  17. mate — a friend
  18. chair — a leader
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. clip — to cut
  22. mate — to breed
  23. spring — the season
  24. cold — not warm

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