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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 ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. rest — what's left
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. clip — to cut
  5. game — wild animals
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. rest — a break
  8. game — a match
  9. clip — a video
  10. rest — what's left
  11. cold — an illness
  12. mine — for digging
  13. current — electric
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. current — happening now
  17. cold — not warm
  18. current — of water
  19. band — a ring
  20. clip — for paper
  21. chair — a leader
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. band — a music group
  24. chair — a professorship

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