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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Did you ________________ the meat?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  13. That must've been a ________________.
  14. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  19. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  20. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. cold — not warm
  3. last — final
  4. last — finally
  5. court — for sport
  6. season — of the year
  7. last — to go on
  8. track — a song
  9. clip — for paper
  10. season — to add flavour
  11. clip — to cut
  12. band — a ring
  13. rush — a thrill
  14. track — to keep track
  15. clip — a video
  16. court — of law
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. rush — hurry
  19. rush — to hurry
  20. season — in sport
  21. court — of a king
  22. track — a path
  23. cold — an illness
  24. band — a music group

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