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

Word bank: cold · dip · cell · band · can · bowl · clip · lie

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  14. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  17. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  23. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  24. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. clip — to cut
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. band — a music group
  5. can — a tin
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — not warm
  8. bowl — to roll
  9. dip — to sink
  10. bowl — a football final
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. cell — in biology
  13. lie — an untruth
  14. dip — a sauce
  15. clip — for paper
  16. lie — an untruth
  17. can — to be able to
  18. cell — a phone
  19. clip — a video
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. band — a ring
  22. can — a tin
  23. lie — to recline
  24. dip — to dunk

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