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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 116 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. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  6. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  7. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  8. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  14. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  20. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  21. Have you met the new head ________________?
  22. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  23. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the vegetable
  2. cold — an illness
  3. squash — to crush
  4. clip — for paper
  5. squash — the sport
  6. fork — to eat with
  7. race — the arms race
  8. stem — a stem cell
  9. fork — in a road
  10. clip — a video
  11. race — humankind
  12. cold — not warm
  13. coach — pulled by horses
  14. kick — with a leg
  15. clip — to cut
  16. stem — to come from
  17. race — a contest
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. kick — in football
  20. fork — a garden tool
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. kick — a thrill
  23. coach — a trainer
  24. stem — of a plant

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