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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 116 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. The ________________ took off on time.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  6. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  7. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  11. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  23. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. lean — to bend
  3. plane — an aircraft
  4. mine — for digging
  5. bass — the fish
  6. lean — thin
  7. plane — in geometry
  8. kid — child
  9. ball — a dance
  10. plane — a tool
  11. bass — the instrument
  12. clip — a video
  13. clip — for paper
  14. bass — low music
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. clip — to cut
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. file — a tool
  21. file — a line of people
  22. ball — a great time
  23. lean — to rest against
  24. file — a document

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