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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 120 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. The water is too ________________.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  11. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. last — to go on
  3. game — a match
  4. bark — of a tree
  5. bark — to shout
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. fan — to cool the air
  8. last — final
  9. band — a music group
  10. squash — to crush
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. last — finally
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. cold — an illness
  16. band — a ring
  17. squash — the sport
  18. game — wild animals
  19. squash — the vegetable
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. clip — a video
  23. clip — to cut
  24. clip — for paper

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