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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. It's one o'clock ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. Don't do anything ________________.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  22. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  23. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. cold — not warm
  5. sharp — exactly
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. spring — the season
  9. chair — a leader
  10. squash — the sport
  11. rash — hasty
  12. squash — to crush
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. bass — low music
  15. cold — an illness
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. sharp — clever
  18. spring — of water
  19. wind — moving air
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. sharp — with an edge
  22. rash — a series
  23. bass — the fish
  24. wind — moving air

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