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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. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  9. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  19. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  20. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.

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

Answer key

  1. racket — for tennis
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. wake — before a funeral
  4. cold — not warm
  5. clip — a video
  6. wake — a trail
  7. band — a ring
  8. racket — a loud noise
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. band — a music group
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. racket — for tennis
  13. clip — to cut
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. dip — to dunk
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. cold — an illness
  18. dip — to sink
  19. dip — a sauce
  20. patient — a sick person
  21. clip — for paper
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. perch — the fish

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