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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. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  20. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  21. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  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. staff — a stick
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. mine — for digging
  4. scale — in music
  5. squash — the sport
  6. cap — a lid
  7. clip — a video
  8. staff — employees
  9. scale — size or range
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. squash — to crush
  12. row — a line
  13. shower — rain
  14. clip — for paper
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. staff — employees
  17. shower — to wash
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. scale — for weighing
  20. cap — of ice
  21. cap — a hat
  22. clip — to cut
  23. squash — the vegetable
  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