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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 116 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. David sat on the ________________.
  2. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  5. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  16. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. swing — music
  3. bass — the fish
  4. fork — to eat with
  5. swing — in golf
  6. clip — for paper
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. bass — low music
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. bat — the animal
  11. fork — in a road
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. rock — a stone
  14. content — happy
  15. rock — to move gently
  16. fork — a garden tool
  17. content — the amount
  18. cold — an illness
  19. rock — music
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. clip — to cut
  23. clip — a video
  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