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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  6. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. mouse — the animal
  3. net — in sport
  4. branch — a division
  5. pound — a weight
  6. mouse — the animal
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. clip — to cut
  9. net — after costs
  10. clip — for paper
  11. cold — an illness
  12. kid — child
  13. field — a subject
  14. field — for sport
  15. mouse — for a computer
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. clip — a video
  18. field — farmland
  19. cold — not warm
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. pound — to hit hard
  22. kid — to tease
  23. net — for catching
  24. cold — the Cold War

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