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

Word bank: season · wake · fall · clip · bulb · land · cold · last

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  5. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  6. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. I've got to change the light ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. The light ________________ burned out.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. wake — a trail
  3. clip — a video
  4. season — in sport
  5. season — of the year
  6. wake — before a funeral
  7. cold — an illness
  8. bulb — for light
  9. clip — to cut
  10. last — finally
  11. land — a country
  12. cold — not warm
  13. bulb — of a plant
  14. land — ground
  15. bulb — for light
  16. fall — to drop
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. fall — to drop
  21. land — to come down
  22. fall — the season
  23. last — to go on
  24. clip — for paper

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