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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. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Did you ________________ the meat?
  16. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. That must've been a ________________.
  21. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  22. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  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. fall — the season
  2. band — a ring
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. capital — a city
  5. season — in sport
  6. season — of the year
  7. fall — to drop
  8. capital — money
  9. cold — not warm
  10. ball — a great time
  11. fall — to drop
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. band — a music group
  14. cold — an illness
  15. season — to add flavour
  16. band — a rubber band
  17. clip — for paper
  18. ball — a dance
  19. clip — to cut
  20. rush — a thrill
  21. rush — hurry
  22. rush — to hurry
  23. ball — a round shape
  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