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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  3. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  4. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. last — finally
  3. swing — music
  4. board — a flat piece
  5. cold — not warm
  6. board — a committee
  7. fall — to drop
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. clip — a video
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. fall — the season
  12. fall — to drop
  13. branch — a division
  14. last — to go on
  15. land — to come down
  16. clip — for paper
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. board — to get on
  19. cold — an illness
  20. last — final
  21. land — a country
  22. swing — in golf
  23. clip — to cut
  24. swing — to play on

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