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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. I've got to change the light ________________.
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. The light ________________ burned out.
  9. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Did you ________________ the meat?
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. mate — a partner
  3. pitch — completely
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. bulb — for light
  6. season — of the year
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. bulb — for light
  9. bulb — of a plant
  10. clip — for paper
  11. clip — to cut
  12. season — to add flavour
  13. chair — a leader
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. cell — in biology
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. season — in sport
  18. clip — a video
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. cell — a phone
  22. mate — a friend
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. mate — to breed

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