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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  5. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. Have you settled on a ________________?
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. kid — to tease
  3. clip — for paper
  4. scale — for weighing
  5. date — the fruit
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. date — on the calendar
  8. scale — size or range
  9. fall — the season
  10. fall — to drop
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. kid — child
  13. fall — to drop
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. stem — of a plant
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. clip — a video
  18. game — a match
  19. stem — to come from
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. clip — to cut
  23. bat — the animal
  24. scale — in music

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