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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. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  4. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  5. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  8. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. There's no middle ________________.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. When was this ________________ built?
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. can — to be able to
  2. rock — music
  3. can — a tin
  4. temple — a place of worship
  5. ground — the earth
  6. cold — an illness
  7. temple — side of the head
  8. can — a tin
  9. clip — for paper
  10. ground — a position
  11. spell — magic
  12. rock — a stone
  13. clip — a video
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. rock — to move gently
  17. bat — the animal
  18. temple — a place of worship
  19. ground — crushed
  20. spell — letters
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. spell — a short time
  23. clip — to cut
  24. cold — not warm

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