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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. David sat on the ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Have you met the new head ________________?
  4. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  5. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  6. That was ________________ to happen.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  12. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. cold — an illness
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. lean — thin
  5. lean — to rest against
  6. bound — certain
  7. clip — to cut
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. bound — tied together
  10. cold — not warm
  11. bound — obliged
  12. root — the cause
  13. swing — in golf
  14. clip — a video
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. root — of a word
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. stem — to come from
  19. swing — music
  20. clip — for paper
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. root — of a plant
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. lean — to bend

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