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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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. Where did you ________________ them?
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  6. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. She's very handy with a ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. mug — to rob
  3. clip — for paper
  4. mine — for digging
  5. season — of the year
  6. mug — a cup
  7. race — humankind
  8. game — a match
  9. game — wild animals
  10. mug — a face
  11. saw — the tool
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. clip — to cut
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. march — the month
  17. march — music
  18. race — a contest
  19. season — in sport
  20. race — the arms race
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. saw — the tool
  23. clip — a video
  24. march — the month

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