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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 had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  24. He keeps ________________ of his days.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. track — a path
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. game — a match
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. clip — for paper
  8. chair — a leader
  9. track — a song
  10. land — a country
  11. clip — a video
  12. tear — from crying
  13. lie — to recline
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cold — not warm
  16. clip — to cut
  17. lie — an untruth
  18. land — to come down
  19. tear — from crying
  20. game — wild animals
  21. tear — to rip
  22. land — ground
  23. lie — an untruth
  24. track — to keep track

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