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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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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 · shower · wind · leaves · land · firm · bass · clip

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  3. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  20. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  21. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. leaves — lets stay
  3. firm — a company
  4. cold — an illness
  5. bass — the instrument
  6. land — ground
  7. land — a country
  8. shower — rain
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. leaves — of a tree
  11. wind — moving air
  12. firm — steady
  13. shower — to wash
  14. wind — moving air
  15. leaves — to go away
  16. clip — for paper
  17. clip — a video
  18. land — to come down
  19. bass — the fish
  20. firm — decided
  21. bass — low music
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. wind — to turn a key
  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