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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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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. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  14. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  15. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. rest — what's left
  3. rest — a break
  4. clip — for paper
  5. bore — gave birth
  6. cold — not warm
  7. cold — an illness
  8. bore — to drill
  9. bat — the animal
  10. clip — a video
  11. bore — to tire
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. scale — in music
  14. fine — a penalty
  15. fine — high quality
  16. rest — what's left
  17. last — final
  18. last — finally
  19. last — to go on
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. scale — size or range
  22. clip — to cut
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. bat — for baseball

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