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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: bass · cold · cabinet · clip · chair · roll · tear · stick

  1. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  11. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. What do you think of the new ________________?
  17. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  20. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. We're on a ________________ here.
  24. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the instrument
  2. clip — for paper
  3. bass — the fish
  4. cabinet — a cupboard
  5. clip — a video
  6. roll — a cake
  7. clip — to cut
  8. cold — an illness
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. stick — a piece of wood
  11. cabinet — ministers
  12. chair — a leader
  13. cold — not warm
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. tear — from crying
  16. cabinet — ministers
  17. stick — a piece of wood
  18. tear — from crying
  19. roll — a list
  20. bass — low music
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. tear — to rip
  23. roll — on a roll
  24. stick — to attach or keep to

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