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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: cold · perch · chair · race · clip · rush · staff · ball

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The King held a masked ________________.
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  18. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  21. That must've been a ________________.
  22. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. cold — an illness
  3. ball — a dance
  4. perch — the fish
  5. ball — a round shape
  6. race — humankind
  7. chair — a leader
  8. rush — hurry
  9. ball — a great time
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. clip — a video
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. cold — not warm
  14. staff — a stick
  15. race — a contest
  16. race — the arms race
  17. staff — employees
  18. rush — to hurry
  19. clip — for paper
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. rush — a thrill
  22. chair — a professorship
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. staff — employees

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