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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 ________________ took off on time.
  2. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  12. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  13. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  14. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Have you met the new head ________________?
  23. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  24. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. plane — an aircraft
  2. mouse — for a computer
  3. row — a line
  4. coach — pulled by horses
  5. cold — an illness
  6. drill — army training
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. mouse — the animal
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. row — to paddle
  11. plane — a tool
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. lash — to lash out
  14. mouse — the animal
  15. drill — a practice
  16. lash — a whip stroke
  17. cold — not warm
  18. clip — a video
  19. clip — to cut
  20. plane — in geometry
  21. clip — for paper
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. lash — an eyelash
  24. drill — the tool

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