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

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. race — a contest
  3. scale — in music
  4. clip — to cut
  5. clip — a video
  6. last — finally
  7. scale — size or range
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. last — to go on
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. kid — to tease
  12. kid — child
  13. race — humankind
  14. clip — for paper
  15. hand — help
  16. race — the arms race
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. hand — in cards

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