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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  6. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  7. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  14. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  15. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  16. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. I'll take my ________________ from you.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. chair — a leader
  4. cold — not warm
  5. dip — to sink
  6. toast — the most admired
  7. toast — a drink to someone
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. cold — an illness
  10. clip — a video
  11. cue — a signal
  12. scale — size or range
  13. dip — a sauce
  14. dip — to dunk
  15. scale — in music
  16. toast — bread
  17. clip — to cut
  18. cue — for pool
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. tear — from crying
  21. clip — for paper
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. tear — to rip
  24. cue — a hint

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