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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  6. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  7. The ________________ went through the wall.
  8. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. dip — to dunk
  3. cold — an illness
  4. clip — a video
  5. lean — to bend
  6. dip — to sink
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. dip — a sauce
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. lean — to rest against
  11. wind — moving air
  12. kid — to tease
  13. wind — moving air
  14. nail — on a finger
  15. cold — not warm
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. clip — to cut
  18. clip — for paper
  19. lean — thin
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. kid — child
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. nail — for a hammer
  24. snap — to snap out of it

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