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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  9. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  10. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  11. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  12. My father caught me by the ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  21. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. Have you settled on a ________________?
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. date — the fruit
  3. band — a ring
  4. lie — an untruth
  5. cold — an illness
  6. game — a match
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. arm — a part of something
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. clip — for paper
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. clip — to cut
  17. band — a music group
  18. cold — not warm
  19. game — wild animals
  20. lie — to recline
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. clip — a video

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