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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 124 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. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  6. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  19. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  20. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — music
  2. clip — to cut
  3. kick — in football
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. bear — the animal
  6. kick — with a leg
  7. swing — in golf
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. field — a subject
  10. cold — an illness
  11. wind — moving air
  12. rock — a stone
  13. field — farmland
  14. cold — not warm
  15. wind — moving air
  16. clip — for paper
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. bear — to put up with
  19. rock — to move gently
  20. bear — the animal
  21. swing — to play on
  22. clip — a video
  23. rock — music
  24. field — for sport

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