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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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  4. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. He is an ace ________________.
  18. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. That was ________________ to happen.
  22. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. saw — the tool
  3. bound — obliged
  4. squash — the sport
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. cell — a phone
  7. sharp — with an edge
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. sharp — clever
  11. squash — the vegetable
  12. clip — a video
  13. clip — for paper
  14. mine — for digging
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. pitcher — in baseball
  18. bound — tied together
  19. cell — in biology
  20. clip — to cut
  21. bound — certain
  22. squash — to crush
  23. saw — the tool
  24. pitcher — a jug

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