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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. This piece is in a major ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  11. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  12. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  13. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  14. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. key — in music
  2. cold — an illness
  3. clip — to cut
  4. bat — the animal
  5. clip — a video
  6. bass — low music
  7. net — for catching
  8. cold — not warm
  9. clip — for paper
  10. key — the most important part
  11. key — for a lock
  12. lean — to rest against
  13. lean — thin
  14. bass — the instrument
  15. bass — the fish
  16. march — the month
  17. march — the month
  18. lean — to bend
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. net — in sport
  22. net — after costs
  23. march — music
  24. cold — the Cold War

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