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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  3. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  4. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  7. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  10. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  11. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  12. The ________________ took off on time.
  13. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  23. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  24. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. rule — government
  3. rule — a law
  4. bass — low music
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. hide — animal skin
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. cold — not warm
  9. plane — a tool
  10. wake — a trail
  11. plane — in geometry
  12. plane — an aircraft
  13. bass — the instrument
  14. prune — to trim
  15. hide — to keep secret
  16. clip — to cut
  17. clip — a video
  18. cold — an illness
  19. prune — to trim
  20. bass — the fish
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. rule — to rule out
  23. wake — to stop sleeping
  24. wake — before a funeral

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