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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

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

  1. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — with a leg
  2. kid — to tease
  3. ground — a position
  4. kid — child
  5. kick — in football
  6. clip — to cut
  7. wake — before a funeral
  8. row — a line
  9. ground — crushed
  10. wake — a trail
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. clip — a video
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. row — to paddle
  16. clip — for paper
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. ground — the earth

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