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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. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. The light ________________ burned out.
  6. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  7. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  11. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  12. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. I've got to change the light ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  18. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. rash — hasty
  3. fine — high quality
  4. clip — for paper
  5. bulb — for light
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. rash — a series
  8. cell — in biology
  9. clip — to cut
  10. fine — all right
  11. bulb — of a plant
  12. racket — for tennis
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. bulb — for light
  16. field — for sport
  17. racket — a loud noise
  18. fine — a penalty
  19. field — a subject
  20. field — farmland
  21. cell — a phone
  22. clip — a video
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. cold — an illness

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