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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: squash · last · cell · march · leaves · cold · kick · clip

  1. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — a thrill
  2. cell — a phone
  3. cell — in biology
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. clip — for paper
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. squash — to crush
  8. march — music
  9. leaves — to go away
  10. kick — in football
  11. kick — with a leg
  12. last — final
  13. leaves — lets stay
  14. cold — not warm
  15. squash — the sport
  16. cold — an illness
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. clip — to cut
  19. last — to go on
  20. march — the month
  21. clip — a video
  22. march — the month
  23. leaves — of a tree
  24. last — finally

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