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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. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  23. He is an ace ________________.
  24. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. clip — to cut
  4. rock — a stone
  5. content — happy
  6. rock — music
  7. wound — an injury
  8. clip — a video
  9. wind — moving air
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. cold — not warm
  12. chip — in a computer
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. clip — for paper
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. rock — to move gently
  18. content — the amount
  19. wind — moving air
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. wound — an injury
  22. chip — to eat
  23. pitcher — in baseball
  24. chip — for betting

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