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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. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  10. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. Did you ________________ the meat?
  20. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  21. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  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. fan — a supporter
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. chair — a leader
  4. file — a document
  5. file — a line of people
  6. bat — the animal
  7. cold — not warm
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. fan — to cool the air
  10. lie — an untruth
  11. wind — moving air
  12. season — in sport
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. file — a tool
  15. wind — moving air
  16. lie — an untruth
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. season — to add flavour
  20. season — of the year
  21. lie — to recline
  22. cold — an illness
  23. bat — in an idiom
  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