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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. cold — not warm
  4. net — after costs
  5. dip — to sink
  6. row — a line
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. net — in sport
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. dip — to dunk
  11. capital — money
  12. cold — an illness
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. clip — to cut
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. clip — for paper
  17. clip — a video
  18. patient — calm and waiting
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. capital — a city
  21. dip — a sauce
  22. bat — the animal
  23. net — for catching
  24. row — to paddle

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