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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 116 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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  11. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. spring — of water
  4. rule — to rule out
  5. cold — an illness
  6. chair — a leader
  7. ball — a round shape
  8. cold — not warm
  9. spring — a coil
  10. wake — a trail
  11. rule — a law
  12. band — a music group
  13. cell — in biology
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. spring — the season
  18. ball — a dance
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. rule — government
  21. cell — a phone
  22. ball — a great time
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. wake — to stop sleeping

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