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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. David sat on the ________________.
  2. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  20. We're almost out of ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  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. swing — to play on
  2. jam — to spread on bread
  3. pop — to visit
  4. swing — music
  5. chest — of your body
  6. jam — in traffic
  7. cold — an illness
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. jam — a tight spot
  10. band — a ring
  11. pop — music
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. clip — for paper
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. swing — in golf
  17. chest — of your body
  18. band — a music group
  19. chair — a leader
  20. pop — soda
  21. clip — to cut
  22. cold — not warm
  23. chest — a box
  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