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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. I've got to change the light ________________.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. The light ________________ burned out.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  21. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  22. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.

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

Answer key

  1. bulb — for light
  2. spell — magic
  3. spell — letters
  4. spell — a short time
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. bat — the animal
  7. fall — to drop
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. clip — for paper
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. cap — of ice
  12. bulb — for light
  13. clip — a video
  14. fall — to drop
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. fall — the season
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. clip — to cut
  20. cap — a hat
  21. cap — a lid
  22. chair — a leader
  23. cold — an illness
  24. bulb — of a plant

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