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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. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. That must've been a ________________.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. Did you ________________ the meat?
  15. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. What do you think of the new ________________?
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. rush — hurry
  3. capital — money
  4. cabinet — ministers
  5. file — a tool
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. chair — to sit on
  8. clip — for paper
  9. season — in sport
  10. file — a line of people
  11. rush — a thrill
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. season — to add flavour
  15. cabinet — a cupboard
  16. clip — to cut
  17. file — a document
  18. kid — child
  19. cabinet — ministers
  20. kid — to tease
  21. chair — a leader
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. capital — a city
  24. clip — a video

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