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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. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  4. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  5. It's one o'clock ________________.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. Did you ________________ the button?
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  11. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  12. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  21. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. board — a flat piece
  2. clip — a video
  3. bass — the instrument
  4. bass — the fish
  5. sharp — exactly
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. press — to push
  8. cold — not warm
  9. sharp — clever
  10. board — a committee
  11. board — to get on
  12. pound — to hit hard
  13. bass — low music
  14. clip — for paper
  15. clip — to cut
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. capital — a city
  18. pound — a weight
  19. capital — money
  20. press — a publisher
  21. press — newspapers
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. cold — an illness

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