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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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  8. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  12. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. row — a line
  3. last — final
  4. pound — for dogs
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. cell — in biology
  7. pit — a fruit stone
  8. last — finally
  9. clip — a video
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. pound — a weight
  12. pound — to hit hard
  13. cell — a phone
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. clip — to cut
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. row — to paddle
  19. mine — for digging
  20. clip — for paper
  21. pit — in a race
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. last — to go on
  24. pit — a hole

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