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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. My mare is ________________ in color.
  4. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  8. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  17. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  18. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. snap — to click
  3. bay — a horse colour
  4. pass — to spend time
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. court — of a king
  7. pit — a hole
  8. pass — to succeed
  9. court — for sport
  10. clip — for paper
  11. bay — a part of the sea
  12. cold — an illness
  13. pit — a fruit stone
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. pass — a permit
  17. bay — to keep at bay
  18. pit — in a race
  19. bat — the animal
  20. clip — a video
  21. court — of law
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. cold — not warm
  24. bat — for baseball

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