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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. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  2. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  3. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  8. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  16. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  17. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  20. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a hole
  2. track — a song
  3. pit — in a race
  4. kid — child
  5. cue — a signal
  6. game — a match
  7. cue — a hint
  8. craft — boats
  9. clip — for paper
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. cold — not warm
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. kid — to tease
  14. clip — a video
  15. pit — a fruit stone
  16. craft — a handicraft
  17. cue — for pool
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. track — to keep track
  20. track — a path
  21. cold — an illness
  22. clip — to cut
  23. craft — a skill
  24. game — wild animals

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