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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 116 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  7. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  8. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  19. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  24. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. spring — the season
  3. cap — of ice
  4. clip — to cut
  5. last — finally
  6. kick — with a leg
  7. pit — in a race
  8. stem — a stem cell
  9. spring — a coil
  10. pit — a hole
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. kid — child
  13. clip — for paper
  14. cap — a hat
  15. cap — a lid
  16. spring — of water
  17. clip — a video
  18. kick — a thrill
  19. pit — a fruit stone
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. last — final
  22. kick — in football
  23. stem — to come from
  24. last — to go on

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