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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. calf — a young animal
  3. clip — a video
  4. calf — a young animal
  5. wind — moving air
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. current — of water
  8. chest — of your body
  9. chest — of your body
  10. current — electric
  11. wind — moving air
  12. wound — an injury
  13. clip — for paper
  14. current — happening now
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. kid — child
  17. wound — an injury
  18. clip — to cut
  19. kid — to tease
  20. chest — a box
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. calf — of the leg
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. wind — to turn a key

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