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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: wind · present · cold · hand · land · clip · cap · bass

  1. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  3. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. cap — a lid
  3. bass — the instrument
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. cap — of ice
  6. clip — a video
  7. clip — to cut
  8. hand — help
  9. hand — in cards
  10. present — a gift
  11. bass — the fish
  12. clip — for paper
  13. land — ground
  14. land — a country
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. present — there
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. land — to come down
  19. bass — low music
  20. wind — moving air
  21. cold — an illness
  22. cap — a hat
  23. present — the time now
  24. cold — not warm

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