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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 · club · rule · season · clip · key · cell · wound

  1. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. This piece is in a major ________________.
  5. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  6. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  7. Did you ________________ the meat?
  8. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  17. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  20. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  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. wound — an injury
  2. cold — not warm
  3. wound — an injury
  4. key — in music
  5. key — for a lock
  6. club — a group
  7. season — to add flavour
  8. season — of the year
  9. cold — an illness
  10. season — in sport
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. key — the most important part
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. clip — to cut
  15. clip — a video
  16. rule — to rule out
  17. rule — a law
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. rule — government
  20. club — for golf
  21. cell — a phone
  22. club — for dancing
  23. cell — in biology
  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